Well, I'm writing about nearly half of pregnancy as I sit here just a few days away from 40 weeks wishing the baby was already here. Let's face it, I don't enjoy being pregnant. The only good parts are 2nd trimester and feeling the baby roll around and kick inside. Right now she is so large it hurts at times when she kicks my ribs!

I was 25 1/2 weeks along when Inara and I got the chance to visit our good friends in California. Christine, Liam, Inara and I had a lot of fun! Although you can't see how pregnant I am in this photo, I was just starting to get big enough in the belly to where it was uncomfortable to do certain things. We did well traveling together though, despite Inara getting sick. I hope to post more about our trip in a different entry.
At just over 29 weeks (picture taken 3.27.11), I'm really starting to stick out! Anna just loves the belly. But I only let good friends fondle the belly like that :). During this pregnancy, I have not gained nearly as much weight as I did the first time! I attribute this to my change in health and diet. I have been seeing my nutritionist for just over 2 years now and having given up wheat, dairy, soy and a few other changes have made such a difference! I have cheated on the dairy a few times though...but I was craving it, can you blame me?
April 9, 2011 (31 weeks along) just two weeks later at my shower, I have already grown! It was at this time, people started commenting on how I'm "all baby" and "you've grown in just a week!" and sometimes even a "are you sure you aren't having twins?". This got really old and fast. But, my shower was a lot of fun thanks to Anna putting it all together and throwing a great party! Also for this pregnancy, I'm sticking straight out! Last time I was wide, but this time, not so much.
Inara is sporting the Baby Plus system that I have been wearing on my belly to let the baby listen to different rhythms and sounds that mimic the heartbeat, but that also are supposed to help the baby focus and potentially be smarter :). She wanted to be just like her mama today! So sweet...

May 7th, 2011 - 34 Weeks You can see here that I'm also putting on some more visible weight and so is the baby! She is nearly fully grown, but still developing! I'm already so anxious for her to arrive! (just not too soon)
May 27, 2011 - Week 38 (just 3 weeks from the previous picture and already so much larger!)
I have been done with the school year for a week now and just waiting. Inara came at 38 1/2 weeks, so I was getting anxious. I did have a day of "false labor" taunting me that I could be done being pregnant! I'm so ready for her to come at this point! My clothes are not fitting quite as well anymore...
June 6, 2011 - Week 39 1/2 Just 4 days to my official "due date" and I'm getting impatient! This picture is quite unflattering, but I'm down to 2 dresses that are comfortable enough to wear and cover me sufficiently. Thankfully the late spring has not been too hot for me, but I still need the air conditioning to get by. As I'm writing, Baby Elsa, as we have been calling her, is hiccuping and it feels quite forceful! She is ready to come... Over the last few weeks I have also felt her foot fatten up as she is putting on the pounds! Stay small for mama, baby...Let's make this birth easy!

I'm constantly complaining that I cannot do this or that because of my huge belly! This morning Inara says to me "you belly will feel better when baby Elsa comes". You are so right my dear...I'm really ready for my home birth as well! My midwife has been so great and I think I'm all set up with all the supplies to have her! It will be nice to be home in a comfortable environment. We did a hospital birth with Inara and it was just fine, but this will just be so much more natural, even though it was nearly as natural as it could be for a hospital birth these days!

I hope to post pictures of our family of 4 when she arrives! Today I have had more crampy contractions and Don is hopeful that she comes on his birthday tomorrow. :) Whatever will I do with 2 June 7th babies in the house?

When I was given the chance to try the new 7th Generation disposable diapers, I was ecstatic. I have a 2 year old (on the small, but tall side) with whom I have used these diapers from her birth! I use cloth as well mixed in with disposables and 7th Generation is the one I go to first! She is currently using size 4 and I had just finished a package I purchased when my box arrived. I was worried that she might have outgrown this size and I wouldn’t be able to test them appropriately because she has a taller rise and they seemed to be getting too small. The first thing I noticed when pulled them out of the package was that they were much taller to sit higher on the waist than before! I was so happy about this, because I felt that the newborn size diapers especially she outgrew sooner than other brands.

The package lasted about a week for my 2 year old. She has been waking up dry in the mornings for awhile now, so I left her diaper on for a short while in the mornings to see how the diaper would hold all the morning urine and her stool after breakfast. With the new formula things held up gloriously! I didn’t seem to notice that it held less at all! I am quite happy with the new and improved product and as I’m expecting my second baby girl, I plan to stock up on some newborn 7th Generation diapers for the first few weeks!

Last week (March 10ish), Inara recently became acquainted with shadows. She saw one on her wall wondered what it was. I tried to explain it to her and she can recognize them, but she has since become obsessed with them! I think are also have a negative effect on her though. She makes sure that she says good night to them, but also makes comments like "shadow won't hurt me, huh?" I have to reassure her of what they really are and she seems to buy into it for awhile.




It's to the point, right now that she doesn't stop thinking about them. My daughter is quite OCD, but I guess that's why I'm her mother. I have my moments, don't get me wrong, but I hope to help her balance some of her obsessions.

She likes it when you use her stuffed animals to show shadows on the wall or outside, but I just wonder how long this will last! It's cute, but hindering things such as sleep as well. I try to sing her the Cat Stevens song Moon Shadow and she likes that and she seems to forget about the obsession for a moment. It's a start!

Inara turned two a few months ago and here is her with Grandmama at her birthday party eating a rather large chocolate cupcake! She isn't allowed a lot of sugar, so that night, after her sugar high, she crashed and was CRABBY! Oh well, she had so much fun with all her friends that came to play with her!
Inara is really showing more and more personality each day and I see so many of our day-to-day influences coming out in her at times as well. Her communication skills are amazing, when she wants them to be. I love it when I ask her a question not once, but several times and she doesn't even flinch to acknowledge that I have spoken to her, much less answer me. It's usually a typical mom question like "do you want to eat yogurt or turkey?" or "Please go get your shoes so we can go". But if I were to say, "Do you want some chocolate?" her little head would immediately turn in my direction and give me a robust reply. Two is a fun age! She understands so much and can speak full sentences and is starting to use pronouns properly! Instead of "hold you" she now says "hold me".

Two can also be a challenging age. She has always been the girl to decide when she wants to do something, and I have a feeling potting training will be the same. About a month ago, maybe, she stripped down, took her diaper off and went into the dark bathroom and sat on her potty and filled it. That has not happened since and when asked if she wants to go potty she says no. But we have been reading a potty book, so when she sees her potty she says "No More Diapers" quite emphatically.

I have been knitting a lot lately since I am pregnant and I made a newborn hat. She wanted to wear it but gladly conceded when I told her it was for the baby in my belly. She proceeded to put the hat under my shirt for the baby. At least she is already sharing with her sister.

Sleep is another issue with her. She rarely stays asleep in her bed all night long, but we have napping under control! Just yesterday, I heard her talking after her nap so I went to quietly investigate. She was not fussing (as usual) and she was still laying down snuggling with her baby kissing its face repeatedly and quite sweetly I might add. I love it when she wakes up happy!
She is also becoming quite the active child. Most days she is content to run errands with me or toddle around the house while we go about our normal day. When we are at a new space or at a place with lots of room (we have a smaller house) she loves to run around and dance whenever possible! Dancing is fun to see her do as well. It's usually a lively or bouncy song and she will just start dancing and sometimes singing along. She has also started a little butt wiggle which is so adorable.

We are working on getting her to realize that a new baby will be coming soon too. For awhile we had a boys name picked out and still sometimes she calls the baby by this name, so maybe I will have to buy her a little boy doll to call this name. :)

Week 14, hardly showing. That is inara "smiling".

Well, this pregnancy has been a rollercoaster ride so far! I found out I was pregnant the first week of October of 2011 after one or two negative pregnancy tests. Symptoms of normal first trimester nausea did not settle in until about 7 or 8 weeks or so. Then it was constant nausea. A few weeks later (Nov. 9) I had an appointment with my nutritionist and she told me that I needed more liver support supplements and that really made a difference in my morning sickness. I think I was on 6 liver support supplements a day for a few weeks! Another acquaintance of mine had a similar issue early in her pregnancy. I wish I would have known this the first time around!

I could only eat a few foods. There was one week, all I could eat was Chipotle's hard taco's. At home I wanted nothing to eat. I even had a stomach flu issue, so I couldn't. Everything I thought of eating made me sick and I didn't want to eat. I was so tired until I saw my nutritionist as well. The house fell apart and poor Inara started to learn what playing independently really meant.

The thought of my supplements made me ill too! I had to work up to what I needed to take during pregnancy! ugh.

We were in Germany house sitting for a friend when I was 11 and 12 weeks. Here is a photo of week 12. I took it myself so it's not very good.
The second trimester is so much better. I gradually increased my food choices as my belly started to grow. I was finally able to take all the nutrients I needed and the baby as well. The nausea has mostly subsided. Upon seeing my nutritionist in December, she told me that extra thyroid support is vital. Something about reverse t3 needing to be absorbed appropriately ensuring all is working well. I sometimes feel bad that Inara did not get the same treatment I am receiving now as I'm sure she would have benefited from this in the long and short run.

Recently, I have been on a serious weeding-out, decluttering, organizing and knitting phase. I completely blame pregnancy, but I tend to do this in spurts anyway. I realize that I have TOO MUCH STUFF for our quaint house. That's a term real estate agents use when a house is small and you may not have enough storage. Don has finally cleaned out SOME of this things from my supposed room in the basement. Lets face it. My knitting, scrapbooking, quilting and books take up a lot of room! Plus we need a secondary place for Inara to play so I can actually take part in these hobbies on occasion or do some mending from time to time. Some toys are now also being housed in my room too.

I have been knitting furiously and have already completed a baby sleep sack, a hat, and baby mittens so she will not scratch her face as much as poor Inara did. I have yet to decide which of my beautiful fabrics will be used to make her her first baby quilt. It took me a year to complete Inara's so I guess there is time. I was more focused on the crib bedding sewing than quilting when Inara was born.

I have also started doing prenatal yoga and hopefully more often than I did first pregnancy. I asked my chiropractor how I can work to prevent bad/breech positioning of the baby. He said it was vital to start doing stretches and exercizes that keep things open. I feel so great after doing a session (even though Inara and the dogs try too hard to "participate") This was somewhere around week 17. Here is a photo in the middle of week 17.
Yes, although we are having a homebirth, I was having some anxiety about this pregnancy and not sure why, we decided to have an ultrasound at week 21. All was good from what they can tell and it was at this point that my intuition was confirmed that we are having a girl! I was truly starting to trust my chiropractor and nutritionists reflex testing too! Now to decide upon a name...

This last shot is horrible of me as Don lazily took it from the coach in week 21. I suddenly got HUGE! Please don't mind the ever messy house in the background. I'm getting slower by the day!

(P.S. this has been in draft for for nearly 2 months now. I have to post without pics because I have more to write since she is nearly 2 years old now!)

Well, I have finally retrieved my pictures on my old annoying camera (after purchasing a new battery) from July to September, but I do have a wonderful new purple Canon Powershot. It's so much nicer. The only downside is that it takes much larger video files and they are hard to post here!

Inara is maturing so quickly these days! Each day she says at least one new word in the correct context. She is really observant. Sometimes I might have only said the word once to her!

Last month, her aunt got married and she was the cutest flower girl with her cousin. She walked down the aisle with her cousin and once the got to the front, she decided to lay down. She did this at the rehearsal and got a great reaction so she decided to see if that would happen again. Sure enough, the audience laughed and said "awwww" and she was happy. Later that evening, she had a blast on the dance floor. She would have danced all night if she could have!

Recently, although she had been obsessed with Veggie Tales, she actually had me take out Veggie Tales in the middle of the show and put in Disney's Robin Hood. That is one of my favorites so it makes me happy, BUT that means that she is actually sitting and watching TV for more than 10 minutes. Uh oh... She is also paying close attention to what is on TV so even though we have been careful, I think we have to be extra careful now. She heard someone on TV say a name 3-4 times and then she repeated it herself.

(edited maybe a month ago here...)
In the last few weeks she has been putting together 2 and 3 word phrases that I can understand. She speaks full sentences in her own gibberish which is adorable anyway. Today she even said "self" as in I can do it myself, mom... She also says me, meaning she wants to make sure she comes with me or is not left out.

She also love to sing! At Grandmama's house she sings while Grandmama plays the piano. At home she sings if she hears music or sometimes she will just sing! I love it. Her eyes tear up and get red as if she were crying. That sometimes happens to me when I sing. I guess she really means it.