Two for one

I'm a slacker, so I'm giving you two weeks' worth of vegetable-fetus comparisons. First, a carrot.

Baby Bennett was the length of a carrot last week. I'm not sure if that includes the green part. And as of tomorrow, (s)he will be the length of a spaghetti squash!

We're a bit hunkered down right now--just waiting for spring and the promise of fewer cold and flu outbreaks. I was on antibiotics last week for a sinus infection and ear infection. Jackson brought a stomach bug home from daycare over the weekend (he was kind enough not to share it with us, though). I've had a headache for two weeks. And the fact that we're supposed to wake up to 4-8 inches of snow does NOT help any of this. :)

We are having another ultrasound on March 16th to determine if Baby Bennett is, in fact, a girl. It will be wonderful to know with a little more certainty, since Jack is already calling her by name and talking about how well he will take care of her. Including making macaroni and cheese for her when she's hungry. Oh, what a helper. :)

He seriously cracks me up

Jack: "DADDY, WHAT YOU DOIN'?"

Dan: Peeing, Jack.

Jack: "Oh. GOIN' POOPY TOO?"

Dan: No, Jack.

Jack: "Oh. I LOVE YOU, THOUGH!"

Happy Valentine's Day

This is how Jack is celebrating:

He is leaning on his valentine box, "reading" one of his valentines, and eating a sucker. And yes, he's naked from the waist down. Love that boy!

Meanwhile, the other love of my life is the length of a banana this week (head to heel--yay!). And my heartburn is through the roof!

It's a....

fairly uncooperative fetus.

As soon as the technician squirted the gel on my belly and brought up the image on her screen, she said, "Oh, your bladder isn't very full." Interesting. I was supposed to drink 16 ounces of water. I drank at least 24, plus half of my water bottle on the way to the doctor's office. She said, "Well, maybe you were dehydrated and the water went somewhere else." Seriously? Water does that? Anyway, I didn't start out well. She very bluntly explained that being able to see the gender of the baby is very much dependent on how full the mother's bladder is. Wow, what a way to start!

So, the tech proceeded with the boring stuff. Looking at all the parts of my uterus, finding different things on the baby, measuring everything she could get her wand on, etc. We quickly found out that our little one was breech. It sat on its butt the whole time--with the umbilical cord between its legs, no less. So the tech kept doing other things, hoping it would eventually move. It didn't.

Don't get me wrong, this was one adorable baby. Playing with its toes, sucking its thumb, and apparently talking to something in there (or just opening and closing its mouth for no reason). But I really wanted to find out what it is so that we can stop saying "it." :) The tech got all of her necessary stuff done and decided to take one more look at the crotch. "Well, there's definitely not anything hanging down, so I'm inclined to think it's a girl. I'd say about 70% chance it's a girl. But don't start buying pink." She moved the wand around a little more. "Yup, here's the cord, right between the legs. There are definitely three lines (that's what they look for in a girl--use your imagination), I'm just not sure they are "the" three lines." She ended by saying she was 80% sure it's a girl. "Okay, you can buy pink. Just keep the receipts."

So, I was a little bummed. Not because I wanted one gender more than the other--I have many reasons for wanting both. I just wanted to know with a little more surety than what we left with. I see my doctor next Tuesday for an ultrasound follow up. My first question is how much an extra ultrasound costs. :) Yup, I'm ridiculous! I know that insurance only covers one. And I have NO interest in one of those private 3D ultrasound places--they kind of creep me out.

So, it's (maybe) a girl!

p.s. By the end of the ultrasound, the tech said, "Oh, your bladder is plenty full now!" But it obviously didn't matter. At least I did everything I was supposed to!

It's a guy

This morning, the three of us were lying in bed, and I said, "Jack, guess what we get to find out on Tuesday?! We get to see if the baby in mommy's tummy is a boy or a girl. What do you think it is?"

After a moment, he confidently said, "It's a guy." Dan and I about lost it, and I immediately had the image of the baby coming out with a mustache or a goatee.

So, stay tuned for Tuesday's news. There may just be a guy in my belly. :)

You say tomato....

I say, "What's the difference in size between a regular tomato and an heirloom tomato?" The size of my baby this week is that of a large heirloom tomato. And this is the best picture I could find. When I sold cookies at the farmers' market, the guy next to me had a variety of produce, including some pretty amazing-looking heirloom tomatoes. I'd rather have a picture of one of his. :)

In other exciting news, baby's arms and legs are now in proportion to each other and the rest of its body. Its kidneys are producing urine and the hair on its head is sprouting.

Most exciting is that starting next week, I can stop referring to it as "it." On Tuesday, we have our ultrasound and will (hopefully) find out if "it" is a "he" or a "she." Very exciting.

Big boy bed continues to go well. Although, after a few days, Jack stopped calling for me to come get him in the morning. The last two mornings, he has come out himself and announced, "I had a nice nap." :)

I'm so spoiled

Or maybe Jack just remembered what a terrible sleeper he was in his first year of life and is now deciding to make up for it in his toddlerhood.

We're entering this season of change, and I guess I just braced myself for a much harder transition. For one, there was potty training. I kind of had it in my head that I wanted him to be trained by the time he turned 3 (which will be in March). But his daycare provider assured me that he was very ready. So I just had to wait for a chunk of time that I was at home with him, which happened to be over Christmas. We spent a couple days naked (well, Jack was naked from the waist down--I was fully clothed), a couple days just in underwear (again, Jack--not me), and then added pants. He did so well. We had a couple very minor accidents, but he totally got the concept right away. We're still in diapers at night, but I'm really okay with that. For a couple weeks, he was waking up dry almost every day, but that hasn't lasted.

Then there's the concept of a big boy bed, which I mentioned briefly in my last post. Again, I really wasn't planning on transitioning him out of his crib yet, but we happened upon a free toddler bed a couple weeks ago. The original plan was for Jack to move downstairs (into what is currently a playroom) once the baby needed the upstairs room. But I decided I really wanted them on the same level as us, so I'm at least attempting to have them share a room. So my parents took Jack for a few hours yesterday while Dan and I tackled the mess that is our house. I emptied Jack's closet, threw away a pile of stuff, rearranged some furniture, and set up the toddler bed. Jack came home and was beside himself with excitement. Still, I thought, "This will pass. The excitement will fade once the reality of bedtime sets in." After dinner, we always set a timer so that Jack knows when it's time to get ready for bed. Usually, it will beep and he'll say, "No! 5 more minutes!" Last night, it beeped, and Jack said, "Oh! Time for bed!" and promptly marched into his room. We did our routine, said goodnight, and tucked him in. I fully expected to see him come waltzing out 10 minutes later or hear from him in the middle of the night. Nope. At 7:00 this morning, I hear his usual "Mommy! Mommy!" I went into his room and he was just sitting on the edge of his bed waiting for me to get him. He proceeded to tell me that he had fallen out of the bed, but I'm pretty sure I would have heard something on the monitor. (Although, I asked him to reenact it later and it was quite hilarious).

Now we're doing the first big boy bed naptime. He's not asleep yet, but I'm not giving up. As long as he takes a break and rests (and gives me a break in the meantime), I'm fine.