19 weeks, Coffee, Sleeping Arrangements...

19 weeks people! About 20 more! It's going to fly with lots going on at least through the end of December. We have Thanksgiving next week, my sister coming home from Argentina (where's she's been for about a YEAR!), then we have the fun month of December with all the holiday fun that that entails. I'm excited to be distracted for the next month so I'm not constantly thinking about my baby to-do list.

Coffee finally tastes somewhat normal and good to me now! I tried it on a whim yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. Cyan has done a number on my taste buds! I'm still not craving any sugar really which is part of the reason I was avoiding coffee and tea. The only sugary thing that still tasted good to me was chocolate milk. I like enjoying a warm cup of coffee, but I'm not going to go crazy with it. I don't need the extra sugar in my diet.

I realized that we have to move Rya out of the crib before Cyan comes. We were planning on just borrowing or buying a second crib. However with the c-section I can't lift Rya for 6-8 weeks possibly more depending on pain. Bryan will be around before and after work but I can't put her in or take her out of her crib for naps. My mom and mother-in-law will be around to help, but I think it's too much to expect someone to be here everyday for nap time. We are planning on buying her a twin mattress and just putting it on the floor for now while she gets used to sleeping in a big bed. Rya still loves for me to rock her to sleep. Not Daddy, me. So this is also an issue we are going to be working through. We have time but it also stresses me out!

We were going to give up our big room for the girls to share and we still might but last night we started entertaining the idea of keeping our room. We just really like it. Cyan will be with us for a couple months (I'm assuming) so the extra space would be nice anyway. Plus our kids don't spend an overwhelming amount of time in their rooms other than sleeping.

I was going to include more in this post but my kids are done cooperating with Mommy's computer time. Have a great day!!!

And the Name Is...

I had my 18 week sonogram this past Wednesday. I was so nervous leading up to it as I have been in the past with sonograms that there was going to be a problem or something. However baby looks good! Cooperated with the needed measurements and moved around enough to be cute but wasn't a psychotic break dancer like Titus.

Baby cooperated for us to find out the gender too!! I'm super excited to announce we are having a GIRL!! Her name is Cyan (sigh-ann) Mercy. Cyan is the specific shade of blue from the primary color wheel. This was a name Bryan has loved since before we ever had kids. I picked Mercy for the middle name because I always thought it would be awesome to have two girls with the middle names of Grace and Mercy. But also because I want her to always be reminded of God's mercy on her and to have mercy on others.

I do have to admit was originally disappointed when we were told it was a girl. I don't know why but I have a weird attachment to the boy baby clothes I have and I wanted a chance to use them again. We also decided on the name Lincoln if it was a boy and I absolutely love that name and really wanted to use it. I even tried rationalizing using it for Cyan. BUT it is a really masculine name. I still think it's awesome and would have used it if Bryan would have been on board. But as time goes on I am sooo super excited to have another daughter. Granted the thought of two girly-girl teenagers makes me want to cry. I'm so not girly, but I can learn! Titus is an amazing big brother (when he isn't fighting evil monsters that are of course Rya without her knowing about it :)  ). I'm excited to teach him to be a leader and protector for his sisters. He already shows a lot of protective qualities and I LOVE it!!

The sonogram showed I have a low lying placenta- which means the placenta ends less than 2cm from my cervix. This could be a problem if I was going to have a vaginal delivery, but I'm not. It could also be a problem if the placenta was in the front of my uterus where the doctor would have to cut for the c-section. BUT the placenta is in the back so my doctor is 100% not concerned and is even happy about where it is.

I gained 4 pounds since my last appt...2 WEEKS AGO!!! I'm not happy about that!! BUT I don't think I've really been eating bad so I can't really complain. I could be more active but I usually have the attitude of I'm going to gain what I gain. When pregnant with Titus I LOVED desserts. I could pack those things away! And with Rya I barely ate any! But I gained about the same with Rya as with Titus. So I think I'm pretty destined to gain roughly about 35ish pounds. I am going to try being more active this time around but if that doesn't work I'm not going to cry about it. I will gain what I gain.

Okay I'm off to battle with the clutter upstairs. Here's a pic of Cyan's cuteness!!

Hair Follow-up/TOMORROW!!!

So a quick follow up on my hair. I washed my hair last night again with just baking soda and water. I think I used too much baking soda- I ended up dumping some down the drain because I didn't need it. Then again I used a pea sized amount of regular conditioner afterwards. I will not be repeating that step again. I think that is the cause of the weird texture- the slight greasy feeling my hair has. My hair feels thicker and is really knotty to play with but i can brush it out just fine and put it up when needed. Next time I wash it I'm going to make the conditioning rinse with apple cider vinegar and water. Between now and then or at least right before I might add a little bit of coconut oil to my hair- a little bit can act as a conditioner. A lot and it's a mask. I want to try both.


TOMORROW!!! Is my 18 weeks sonogram. We get to see baby and hopefully find out what we are having. I'm super excited but also nervous. I always get nervous ahead of time until I know that baby is right on track and doesn't have anything developmentally wrong/challenging. Once we are in the clear for all of that I relax and enjoy it more. I'm feeling more movement these days- not necessarily more in amount but more as in strength. One kick or punch this morning really surprised me!! I LOVE this part of pregnancy!!!

Can't wait to announce what we are having and the name we have chosen!! :D

Crunchy Weekend

Apparently this was my weekend for upping my crunchy game. :D

Friday night I was looking forward to taking a shower. I have been debating on and off to switch to the no-poo method of washing my hair. I have avoided it because, well I'm lazy, and I really haven't been in the mood to deal with transition hair. I've heard it can be greasy and unruly. But lately my hair has been ridiculously greasy anyway. Maybe it's pregnancy hormones or the fact that I've needed to use a little conditioner to be able to get a comb through my hair. I don't know. But either way Friday night I decided to just try it and see how my hair felt after. I could always wash it the regular way after if I wasn't satisfied. So I grabbed a small snack container and poured a bunch of baking soda into it. In the shower I slowly added water to make a watery paste. I rubbed the paste into my roots and scalp and gently ran the rest of it over my hair as I rinsed it out. My hair felt kind of dry and knotty but not terribly so. I decided to use a pea sized amount of conditioner on all my hair but the roots just to make combing it easier. 

After the shower I was able to comb my hair no problem. It definitely felt different. Parts of it felt greasy and parts felt very dry. And my hair felt like that all weekend. Brushing it would make it feel smoother again and wearing it up reduced how dry and knotty it felt. I kept checking for signs of grease all weekend and haven't seen any. I haven't really checked yet this morning but my hair doesn't feel any different. 

I'm going to keep going with this and then possibly might test with regular shampoo in a week or so. I thoroughly enjoy not having to wash my hair everyday because of greasy hair.

The other aspect of my crunchiness this weekend was with Essential oils. Rya came down with a cold and wasn't sleeping well. Friday night I didn't have any oils yet so I put Vicks on her feet with socks and then rubbed some into a wet washcloth that I hung in front of her fan. That seemed to help although around 3 am she woke up and then had a hard time settling back down. 

Saturday morning I went to a local store that sells essential oils and other herbal things as well as some other stuff. I bought Rosemary oil to put in our humidifiers because it can help clean out your sinuses and make it easier to breathe. I also bought Lavender oil because it can help calm and induce rest. Which after being up with Rya for almost 3 hours Friday night we needed rest. I have some maintenance work to do on the humidifiers so for nap time Saturday I just put Rosemary oil on the washcloth like I did with the Vicks. It definitely seemed to help. I like the smell of it! Just rocking Rya in the same room as it helped clear my nose out!

I put a couple of drops of Lavender oil on Rya's feet Saturday night and she slept all night. Did the same last night and she got up once but she fell asleep pretty quickly. I used it on Titus last night as well. He still got up a few time we but he calmed down and fell asleep quicker than usual. I do NOT like the smell of the lavender. It doesn't smell like the conventional lavender scent that you would get in a store. Although, I'm not a huge fan of that smell either.

I've enjoyed my crunchy weekend. I'm going to keep going with the oils until Rya clears up (and Bryan who now has a cold).

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

It's Friday!!

I'm so excited it's Friday! We have no plans this weekend, except to hang out as family. We might work on the house a little bit and catch up on some clerical stuff. But if not, that's okay! Rya seems to have a cold so I want to make sure she can get a ton of rest this weekend.

My kids love to dance. I can turn on music, Youtube, or they will even play Just Dance. They just love to get down. It's adorable and great exercise for them. And me, when I'm not too lazy to join in. One of our pastors told Bryan about this awesome band called The Rizers. They are an animated band and make super cool videos. The best part about this band? Their songs are straight Scripture. It's a great way for my kids to get more Scripture in their day and they learn Bible verses without even realizing it! It's good for me too! The songs are really catchy as well.

Here's a Youtube link so you can check them out. I HIGHLY recommend it!
http://www.youtube.com/user/therizers

I hope you all have fantastic weekends!!

17 weeks

-I haven't figure out how to get pics on here from my phone so I don't have a new picture. Oh well!

-The heartburn has kicked in! Really with only tomato-y stuff or anything spicey. Tums are my friend and so far they are working.

-I have a little jr sized basketball sized belly. I love it! I love actually looking pregnant vs just looking like I ate too many cookies. Depending on the day I'm still in that phase but it's becoming more and more obvious.

-I am still pretty exhausted. I think the first trimester exhaustion is gone but I'm still beat! I think it's more getting woken up from deep sleep in the mornings and from naps. I try not to take naps but I can't keep my eyes open anymore. But I always feel worse after.

-I need to get my butt moving on making some maternity pants. I can't really fit in my jeans anymore. I'm using the hairtie trick to keep the button closed but the zippers are getting tight too. I pretty much live in sweats at home but don't want to do that going out. I'm outgrowing the pants a friend gave me. They were very much appreciated but short lived! I'm good on shirts whether it's regular shirts or ones I had or borrowed.

-I am getting the nesting urge for projects but of course I don't have the energy to do anything about it. I don't usually get the crazy cleaning aspect of nesting- just organizing and projects.

-Titus is getting really excited for the baby and Rya talks about it more. Poor Titus wants the baby to come right now and doesn't understand he has to wait another 5 months.

-We were planning on Titus sharing a room with the baby if it is a boy. But that kids can't sleep through noise. Rya crying wakes him regardless of when it happens and they are in seperate rooms! So the baby will room with us a little longer than planned then we will reevaluate when the time comes.

-18 weeks sonogram is in one week!!! I am praying this baby cooperates and shows off the gender. And also that everything is healthy and growing the way it should.

-I've started to feel the baby move with my hand. Bryan even felt it once. It's awesome and one of my favorite things about being pregnant. :D

Picture announcement

I've been wanting to announce this pregnancy in some cool way but I wasn't sure how. But then I found this shirt and it all fell into place. This shirt is so comfy and I will gladly live in it for the next 5 months!!

An update on life

Bryan:
Working hard at his job every day. God has definitely blessed him with awesome co-workers. His actual job is not his dream and he's not designing at all but he's thankful for his job and has been able do to some designing on side.

Titus:
Man this kid is crazy! He's starting to have dreams and think they are real so I hear a lot of really confusing stories :). He is pretty much 100% reliable without a diaper during the day. He could probably rock 100% of naps and most nights but I'm a chicken. His imagination is crazy and it so awesome to watch him use it. He generally loves playing with his sister but sometimes gets way too rough and parental. We have some behavior things we are working on and it's a hard season but he's still a blast,

Rya:
This little girl is a freaking blast! She makes the funniest faces and is just a goofball. She is starting to need help learning to obey and will flat out tell me "No" but we are working on that. She LOVES to read and is really starting to talk. It's amazing how many words she can say or when she puts them together in a sentence. I fully weaned her maybe a month ago (probably a little less) and she started sleeping through the night shortly after. She's been getting up early the last few days which I'm not cool with but whatever. I can deal with that.

Me:
I am much less tired most days unless Rya gets me up really early. Thankfully I think the first trimester exhaustion has worn off. I have a ton of projects I want/need to get done and I'm starting to get antsy about it all. I'm trying to figure out the best routine for our family so the baby can join in and not be born into complete chaos. I think the kids will adjust better if they have a routine they can count on for the most part.

So that's us for now. I'm sure tomorrow things will be totally different kid wise. I praying the kids adjust well to the time change this weekend. With Rya already waking up around 530 I'm betting Sunday morning it will be 430. My kids never sleep in with the time change. Really wish they did or that we just didn't mess with the time in the first place.

I'm off- Rya is shoving a book in my face that I apparently need to read RIGHT NOW!!! :D