27 weeks Pregnancy Update

May 16, 2018

How far along:

27 weeks

Baby is the size of a:

Bunch of Bananas or a Camping Lantern

Total weight gain:

30lbs…dang!

Maternity Clothes?

Both. Getting a little tired of my choices, but oh well. 

Stretch Marks?

Haven’t noticed any yet.

Sleep?

I just read back from my 27 week pregnancy update with Fox and I was sleeping through the night back then. What the heck? Definitely not happening this time around. Fox was super sick last week, so he slept with us most of the days, which made it even harder to get a good night’s sleep. I had two boys, one inside of me and one next to me, taking turns kicking me all night. 

Best moment of the Week:

Celebrating Fox’s 4^th Birthday as a family (his big party is still coming up).

Movement:

Constantly. To be honest, I mostly don’t enjoy baby kicks. They startle me every time and they usually happen when I try to rest. I like seeing my belly move though. 

Food Cravings:

I had a lot of veggie sandwiches this week and chocolate milk. Nothing new. 

Belly Button in or out:

Definitely flattening out.

Gender:

Sweet baby boy!

Symptoms:

Rash on my back and stomach, sounding like I’ve ran a marathon when doing light activities and being an emotional wreck. This week has been awful and I don’t even know what happened, but I had two emotional breakdowns this week and just couldn’t get out of it. I think I’m developing some kind of pregnancy depression, without even having any reason for it, but I’m definitely seeking help, so I can get out of this funk and be healthy for my boys. 

Anything Making you queasy or Sick?

Luckily not. 

Have you Started to Show yet?

Wearing that big belly proudly! 

What I miss:

The old me. I hope she comes back in a few months. 

What I'm looking forward to:

Putting the nursery together and celebrating Fox’s birthday with all of our friends this weekend!

What I'm not looking forward to:

My Glucose test next week and I’m also worrying about my emotions being so out of whack and that it will get much worse after birth. 

You can find Fox’s 27 week pregnancy update HERE!

Fox's 4th Birthday Interview

Another year has come and gone and it's a hard realization for any mom that your baby is growing up. How in the world do I have a four year old? FOUR!

I asked Fox the same questions last year and I love seeing how some of the answers changed and some stayed the same. 

1. How old are you? 4

2. Who is your best friend? Dylan and Lyndon
3. What is your favorite thing to do? Play iPad
4. What is your favorite color? Red
5. What is your favorite food? Ice Cream
6. What do you like to do with your family? Go on vacations. Because the only vacation I want to go on is Legoland California.
7. What is your favorite toy? Power Ranger Headquarters
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Astronaut
9. What makes you happy? Going to the trampoline park
10. What makes you sad? When it's rainy and I can't go outside
11. What is your favorite Show to watch? PJ Masks
12. What is your favorite book? Super friends
13. What do you love to learn about? What different toys do
14. What was the best part of your birthday? Dodging Fire Balls
15. What was your favorite birthday present? Batman Headquarters (from Dylan)
16. Who is your teacher? Miss Jordyn and Miss Kat
17. Where do you like to go? In n Out
18. What is your favorite treat? Chocolate
19. What do you think about before you fall asleep? Thinking about playing with Grandpa
20. What does love mean? Love you
21. What is your favorite song? Big Chicken

You can find his third birthday interview here!

26 weeks Pregnancy Update

May 9, 2018

How far along:

26 weeks

Baby is the size of a:

Head of Lettuce or a Bowling Pin

Total weight gain:

29 lbs

Maternity Clothes?

Both

Stretch Marks?

Haven’t noticed any yet.

Sleep?

Not the best.

Best moment of the Week:

Our San Diego Trip! We had such a great time!

Movement:

All the time. I don’t know if I forgot about how active Fox was, but I feel like this kid here is kicking way more than Fox ever did. Especially when I try to sleep, he just keeps kicking, kicking, kicking, until I change positions. I always wonder if kicks mean that something is bothering him. Either way, I think we are going to have a wild child. 

Food Cravings:

Salads and Pancakes. Not together though.

Belly Button in or out:

Getting flatter.

Gender:

Sweet baby boy!

Symptoms:

Still having a rash on my lower back and belly and backaches come and go, but nothing too bad so far. I’ve also been extra emotional lately and getting out of breath easy. 

Anything Making you queasy or Sick?

Luckily not. 

Have you Started to Show yet?

The belly is seriously the best part of pregnancy!

What I miss:

Same as last week, sleeping okay and an ice cold coke. Also, feeling like a normal person and not being so emotional. 

What I'm looking forward to:

Putting the nursery together, I think we are two weeks out from the construction finish.

What I'm not looking forward to:

I get really nervous about having two kids lately. It’s not like I’m not looking forward to meeting this little guy, but I’m just worried about how it will change all of our lives. I remember having the same feelings with Fox and it’s probably just part of the process. 

You can find Fox’s 26 week pregnancy update HERE!

Mommy & Me

For Mother's Day this year, I gave myself the gift of some Mommy & Me pictures with my best bud. 

Katie and I constantly disagree about photo shoots, because she thinks Fox hates them and while I don't think he loves them, he also doesn't have a problem with them and it really only takes ten minutes, so I feel like it's not too much to handle. 

So when I told her about the pictures I had scheduled and she wasn't a fan of my plan, she asked Fox if he likes taking pictures with Samantha or rather not do it. And you know what he said? He likes it...haha!

We walked into her studio and she was upstairs and Fox was complaining about not wanting to take any pictures and he wants to go home. Go figure. The photographer came downstairs and asked "Who is ready for pictures?" and he excitedly yelled "Meeeee!" That kid! 

So when I look at these pictures, I see two things. My first instinct was to cringe about all the imperfections I see about myself in these pictures. And then I realized that it shouldn't matter, because we all age, but more importantly because the way Fox looks at me, there are no such things as imperfections and it's just pure love. 

He was really hamming it up for the camera.

I will always treasure these pictures with my first born, taken just a few months before his world would change forever. Imperfections or not. 

Sea World

We spent the second day of our trip in Sea World. It had been over two years since we last been there and we had plans to meet a very special friend there. Fox's grandparents were tired from the day before and decided to stay back and do their own thing.

This is Jack and his sweet Mama. Jack is one of Fox's half siblings and the last time the boys met, they were one and two years old, so we were all excited to see them together again. 

The boys had such a fun day together. While we always talk about the half siblings, I think it's too much to comprehend at their young age and Fox doesn't understand what it means, so we don't go into it too much. That morning, we talked about how Jack is part of our family and his half brother (he calls all of his best friends brothers, so this term didn't confuse him at all) and that was pretty much it. 

It just melted my heart to see them together and I hope they will always have some kind of bond as they grow older and have more questions about where they came from.

I don't see much resemblance between these two, they have the same kind of hair, but that's about it.

When I saw them holding hands, my heart just burst into a million pieces. Such a sweet moment!

We found a splash pad and not having any swim clothes with us didn't stop us from getting soaked (we had a spare set of pants).

This ride was kind of like the teacups at Disneyland. It was definitely too wild for me and Katie gets nauseous on those rides, so Jack's Mama volunteered to take both of the boys.

It was a super hot day (even for us Arizonians)!

We ended the day in the late afternoon, because everyone was exhausted and hot, but we all had such a great time and are already planning our next sibling reunion. 

When I showed Fox these pictures, he said: "That was such a fun day!" He still talks about our trip every day and how it was the best vacation we ever did...and I totally agree! Usually, I'm ready to go home after a long weekend away, but we had such a great time, nobody wanted to leave! In fact, we loved it so much, we bought some season passes (they are valid in California, but also at the small Legoland and Sea Life Aquarium we have in Arizona). 

Until next time!

Fox's 4th Year

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!

I keep telling him to stop growing and stay little forever, but he tells me he will still hold my hand when he's 35 and I can come live with him on his rocket ship when he's an astronaut. At least that's something, right?

Like every year, I made a little slideshow of my favorite pictures of the last year for him.

You can find his past slideshows here:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Legoland

We've been talking about taking Fox to Legoland for what seems like a year and when he recently really developed a strong interest in legos, we decided that now would be the best time to do it, before we have a baby that makes traveling a little bit more challenging. 

We stayed at the Legoland hotel in a pirate suite and this was by far the coolest hotel I've ever been in. The room was themed from top to bottom, they had a treasure chest in there where they delivered free sets of legos for Fox every single day, which he loved of course. The hotel itself was amazing, they had lego tables for the kids everywhere, a huge lego pirate ship play structure in the lobby and you could trade your lego figurines with any staff member. I loved the breakfast there every morning and we also had dinner at their new castle hotel next door twice while we were there and the food was awesome there as well. 

The best part for everyone was the elevator though. You got in and there was really boring elevator music playing, but once the doors closed, it transformed into a disco, complete with dance music, lights and a disco ball. It was so fun! 

Fox loves bunkbeds and was so excited to sleep in one for the first time, but when it came to it, he got too scared and ended up sleeping with us instead. 

They had these big lego figurines all throughout the hotel. Seriously, we loved it there so much! We have stayed at multiple Disney hotels before, but this was way better!

This is their brand new Castle Hotel, that they had just opened a week prior to our visit. They had a slide in there for the kids to use to go from the first level to the bottom level, instead of using the stairs. 

We invited Fox's grandparents to join us on this trip and we were all so happy that they could make it.

Here comes the "Wild Bunch"

He looks so serious in this picture, but he actually loved this ride, because he could steer this car all by himself.

Every ride they had there had a sign that pregnant people shouldn't ride it, which was very surprising, because at Disneyland I could ride almost all of the kids rides. I didn't really understand their reasoning (maybe besides the fear that they would get sued) because these little boats were so slow and there was no reason, why I wouldn't be able to ride it. 

Grandpa and Fox got eaten by this shark

The weather was perfect that day and since we went on a Friday, the crowds weren't too bad and we didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes in line for a ride.

Fox and I were in line for this helicopter ride and I noticed another same sex couple with two kids that were Fox's age in front of us. We haven't been around any other same sex families with Fox, so I pointed it out to him and whispered that those two boys also had two mommies, just like him. To which he starts declaring VERY loudly: "I don't have two Mommies, I have a Mommy and a Mama!" I was cracking up...this kid always makes sure everyone uses the right terms for us.

This was the highlight of Katie's day: Meeting Lego Batman! Fox is not a fan of any kind of characters at theme parks, but he was willing to take a picture if he didn't have to do it by himself.

And this must have been Grandpa's favorite ride. Those boats were wild and every once in a while a water cannon shot out at them.

Their Miniland USA was amazing! 

They closed surprisingly early (at 5pm) and we could've easily spent two days there, but we already had plans for the next day. It was a super fun day and I'm so glad we were able to experience it with Fox.