Mothers of Boys, Tell Me Your Stories :)

Yessss, that's what it means - we did the big ultrasound last Thursday, and turns out baby #2 is a boy!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D

You know when you roll a dice thinking of a number, and then when it comes up you're like, "whoa, what were the odds?"

That's how I'm feeling right now. Not that my odds weren't good (50% :), but it just seemed like too much of a coincidence for me to want to have boy next AND actually have one. It's crazy. I'm still in awe of this.

I wanted a boy for so many reasons. Let me count:

- great excuse to buy more baby stuff (need blue this time! :);

- Melissa seems to have more fun playing with boys than girls - they crack her up;

- speaking of her, it might help Miss High Maintenance deal with the fact that someone else will receive attention (at least he won't steal her pink stuff);

- and, well, who doesn't want one of each?

It sounded like more reasons on my head, but the thing is, I'm just really happy about it. Seeing Melissa getting cuter every day makes me excited to see what other kid we can come up with lol. It's just so fascinating to watch someone develop.

Now, just because I'm on the subject of development (and to give each child equal blog time), I think it's valid to list some of Melissa's latest cutenesses:

- When we do something she enjoys (like throwing a toy in the air), the way she gets to make us repeat is by yelling: "On your mark, go!" Over. And over. And over.

- Since I like to tell her, "Are you my baby? Yes you are!", now she's been coming to me saying, "Are you my mommy?" :)

- She says "I love you"!! It sounds more like "I loww yoou", and comes with a hug. *tear*

- She likes to put an "s" to the end of words, so they sound more sophisticated. Water is now "waters" and her toy doggie is "doggies" (oh, and also "booger" is "boogers" lol).

- She says "thank you mommy" often (even to daddy :) - and speaking of that, she kinda trades off our "names" (mommy & daddy) from time to time.

I could go on, but I think I already put y'all through enough bragging.

On sort of unrelated news, we are in the process of moving to Texas (AND planning our trip to Brazil - this Thursday!!), so if I disappear (again), you know why.

Now all of you moms of boys, please tell me what I have to look forward to!

The Weighting Game

<- 17 weeks!

So I finally took some more belly pics - after over a month from the last ones. I know, I know. I'm neglecting this baby (or pregnancy) already.

With my first one, I think I took pictures every week, documented almost everything and even promised myself I'd do the same the next time. HA. The innocence of someone who doesn't have a toddler.

But this post isn't about the pictures. Is about how delusional apparently I am with my weight situation.

For instance: at 12 weeks, I thought I was HUGE. Not belly huge, but neck, chin and arms. But apparently I was doing pretty good - the doctor's scale said that I'd lost 2 pounds. They looked at me with concern, but I was like, woohoo! How long can we keep this up without harming the baby?

So lately I've been feeling the opposite of how I did in the beginning - hardly notice any double chin, and even thought I was losing more weight. Well, the last appointment showed that I've gained said 2 pounds. It might be the bacon and eggs I eat frequently for lunch (what can I say, baby NEEDS protein). And yes, I've tried every other kind of lunch imaginable, but it seems that if I don't inject ridiculous amounts of protein into my veins, I literally CRASH around 3 (precisely the time Melissa's waking up from her nap). And when I say crash, I mean have rapid breathing, extreme weakness until my eyes get so heavy I can't open them anymore. Plenty of times I let Melissa call for me just for a couple minutes, so I can close my eyes briefly to pretend I'd taken a nap. Which makes me feel guilty now that she's been so good about sleeping for 2 whole hours.

Speaking of that, I'd better go check on her. I leave you with a couple pics of my latest preggie footage (and Melissa, of course, had to steal the spotlight :).

Baby Dreams

<- This is how she is... and this is how I dream about her->

Melissa's been officially a little girl for some time now, but when I dream about her, she's always still a little baby. She fits on my chest, can barely move and never, ever eats on her own. But the terrifying thing is that, though she's so dependent, I spend half the dream looking for her, as if I misplaced her somewhere. And whenever I am with her, I'm NEVER doing it right - either holding her weird, or not feeding her the right thing, or it's confusing, but clear that something is terribly wrong.

I don't have to be a dream specialist to know this means I miss my baby. Also that haven't been all that confident on my parenting skills.

When she was a baby, I thought she was SO much work, but today I see how low maintenance she actually was. There wasn't much else to do besides change diaper, nurse (or give bottle), cuddle and repeat. Okay, tummy time and baths too, but really, this was NOTHING compared to:

Chasing her around the house; Should she watch TV or not?; Or better yet, should I feel guilty I let her watch TV? (don't judge, I'm an invalid preggie); Should I discipline her right now or just take the breakdown as a mother-daughter venting session?; I got REALLY mad. Did I traumatize her?; I wonder if I didn't get mad enough, and now she thinks it's okay; Has she eaten enough protein today? Will she pass out in her sleep?; Is her blanky warm enough? Too warm?; I think I waited too long to her in the morning. But if I get up too quick I get dizzy and there goes my morning sanity; ...

Sorry for entering you into the crazy mine field that is my mind.

I guess I just miss the simplicity of when she was a baby. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE that she calls me mommy, says little sentences and understands a lot of what I tell her. I love that her face is taking its own shape, which is absolutely gorgeous. That she's sweet and says "hug" or "come" when she wants me to get her.

I do, I love toddlerhood. I'm just not sure if I'm keeping up with it expertly. I know I must not suck too much, 'cause she seems happy and is turning out a very fun and caring little girl, but you know how we moms are - we worry about nutrition, what we're imprinting in their subconscious, stuff like that.

Maybe what scares me is how quickly she's assimilating everything. When she was a baby, I felt like I had time to learn as I went - and granted, every time I thought I had it figured out she'd change, but still, she didn't change THAT fast. This is crazy. And though I'm excited about the other baby coming up, it's kinda sad that THIS baby is now only in my dreams.