Pics

Setting up the crib shots. We have an identical shot of Darrell setting up Bren’s crib. Bren just had to get in immediately, lol.


A couple Easter pics. Brendan had a blast through the whole thing. He loved it all.


A hug for mommy.

Flying with Daddy on an airplane ride at the Poteet Strawberry Festival. He loved this and also riding on a train.

3 year & 22 week appts

Bren is 38 pounds or so (he wouldn’t stand on the scale by himself so had to be carried by DH and then DH’s weight taken off) and 38 1/2 inches tall. That’s 90% for weight and 75% for height. The doctor said to really watch what he eats right now because it will be so much harder to fix later. He said he’s on track to be 5’10” and 175 pounds when he is 16 and that’s about 25 pounds too high for that height. Merely slowing down his weight gain by a few ounces here and there now and he’ll be back on track. I left his baggie of leftover Easter candy up at the in-laws. 😉 He got one shot- the 2nd Hepatitis A. Once the band-aid was off he was fine.
The pediatrician’s immediate, big concern- and he talked about little else- was that Bren is very behind socially. Maybe that’s because he wouldn’t look at him and bawled the entire time??! I knew it was an issue but I didn’t think he’d be *so* concerned at this moment about it. Last year he simply said it was his personality and he was just shy. This time he stressed that he needs to be put in a group setting of other children 2-3x a week for 2-3 hours, starting immediately. He stressed group too- not one on one with another child. DH and I are going to look into a Little Gym/Gymboree class for him as a start. We are kind of at a loss as to what else we can do. We definitely do not have the $ for daycare and don’t belong to any church for a mom’s day out program. Of course, being pregnant, I bawled during this whole conversation. It shouldn’t have surprised me though. The conversation or the tears.
My biggest concern was his behavior. What to do when Bren refuses to cooperate, follow directions, answers you with NO! and crossed arms, drops to the floor, etc. This drives DH and I bonkers. He said to pick our battles and instead of asking him what he wants, to give him a choice between two items. His example was “Do you want milk in the red cup or the blue cup.” We do this choice suggestion already so it wasn’t too helpful. On the picking the battles- am I really supposed to let his powerfully defiant behavior go undisciplined a lot of the time??? We are really struggling with this right now and are clueless as to what to do. At home we can send him to his room (partially works but it takes many 3 minute sessions) but out in public the only thing we can figure out to do is to try to reason with him and when that doesn’t work, to spank him. Neither work. I guess we’ll have to be married to the stroller once more because our biggest public issues are him running off and refusing to walk. Bren has a few red marks on his arm and I figured out it was from how he drops to the floor when we are walking somewhere while holding onto his lower arm. Our immediate response is to hold tighter and tug to try to get him to stand back up. UGH! 🙁 Not happy at the moment.
He ended the appointment with “So I’ll see you guys…” and I replied “in August.” 😀
*****
My 22w0d OB appt was very brief. I gained 5 1/2 pounds. Whoops. So I am 2 1/2 pounds up from what I started at. The top number on my blood pressure is a bit high for me. Last time in the 2nd trimester I hovered around 100/74 and this time I am hovering around 134/74. Doctor didn’t mention it though. She also didn’t mention that I already have a bit of protein in my urine. Don’t really know what amount “+1” is but I do know I had that amount last time but it started several months later. My uterus measured two weeks ahead at 24 weeks (same as last pregnancy at this point), heartbeat was fine. We even got there 40 minutes early and I was seen immediately. 😀
Yesterday marked 4 months left to go!!! WooHoo!!! I guess that makes me in the 6th month now, with the 6th, 7th, 8th & 9th months to go. WOW. 😀

Seatbelts

Darrell took Brendan out to get some take-out tacos last weekend. As he was putting Bren in his booster seat, someone (maybe it was a car) was coming so he had to hurry into his own seat and close the door so it could get by. Bren wouldn’t HEAR OF IT! He needed his seatbelt on “so we can be safe!” Thanks Dora! 😉
Today, Bren was wrestling with me as I tried to put a new pair of training pants on him. I ended up kind of sideways on the bed and my tank top strap went over my shoulder exposing my bra strap. He laughed, gave it a flip and said, you guessed it, “Seatbelts! So we can be safe!” LOL.
We had a fun time at lunch today and I proudly killed several birds with one stone. We were eating Wheat Thins and squirt cheese so I started writing letters on them. He loved seeing what the next letter was and making it’s sound for me!!! Didn’t hurt that they were multi-grain wheat thins nor that I made him take a swig of milk before each letter was revealed. In any case, U and V are both Y to him. He can’t repeat V or it’s sound- they come out B abd “buh”. I guess he hasn’t learned the stick your teeth on your lower lip sound yet.
Looking forward to the Poteet Strawberry Festival this weekend. Haven’t been since Bren was a newborn! Got 2 free tickets for buying 2 tubs of ice cream. WooHoo!
21w1d. Only continuos complaint is being extremely tired. Methinks this is the best it is going to get! Baby noticeably moves at least 3x a day now- mostly really low but occassionally about 3 inches below the belly button. I feel bad about still not being able to eat a lot of proteins.
PS. I forgot an important date last entry- April 29th is our 6th anniversary.
PSS. Yes, I’ll hold you Aimee! It’ll all be just fine!

You may NOT call me Damn!

Brendan for a long time has called us “Dada-Mama” when we are both around. I guess he just can’t be bothered to remember who is who sometimes. In the past few days he has shortened that to “Da-M” and it drives me NUTS. No, my name is not Damn!!!
Two things that Bren has been saying- “I love (insert item/person here)” and “I missed you!” He has said “I love you” before but the way he says it, for example, “I LUBS tacos” makes me realize that he knows exactly what he is saying. And the “I missed you” is very sweet too. He’s just not repeating these but fully gets their meanings.
We swam in Bren’s pool today. It’s 10 foot long and the water comes to mid-chest on Brendan when it is at its fullest. It’s *just* deep enough for me to float some in, which is heaven on my poor hips. I love to hook my ankles over the top rim, prop myself up on my elbows and “lay” on my belly. It’s been awhile!! If it weren’t for the hot sun, I could lean back on the soft side and nap. It’s really nice. Perhaps I can put the big umbrella in the round table and scoot it close enough for enough shade next time. All I know is 2 hours is all it takes for all my freckles to pop out. Ugh! Except for the nipple seams, I heart my new maternity bathing suit!!! Just 2 months and a couple of days til our beach vacation!
Awhile ago Bren went into the nursery. I followed him (currently a construction hazard area) and he was at a window. “I’m lookin outta winnow, Mama!” I told him to “come on” and left. I realized a few minutes later that he hadn’t followed me and when I went back in Brendan was sitting on the floor with a pair of scissors caught in his hair!!! ARGH!!! No damage done, thankfully.
Then just a moment ago I saw something that I thought I’d never see. Bren was laying on a mattress on the living room floor (that is awaiting it’s return to the nursery when the border is finished being put up) and being very still. I thought he was asleep but when I peeked I saw that he was… SUCKING HIS THUMB!!! Huh?! He sure was cute though.
We are pretty much saying bye-bye to naps. He really only needs one if he got up too early. He sleeps 10 1/2 to 11 hours per day- all at night- now. I think that is on the low end, but okay. He catches up with a car nap here and there.
I have been hearing on my toddler boards that one question the pediatrician asks at the 3 year visit is can your child hop on one foot. Never thought about it, so I just demonstrated it to Brendan. Nope! He holds one foot up and then hops to both feet. Darling DH, do you think you could possibly teach Brendan this by, say, next Thursday morning??? 😉 He knows 9 colors- red, blue, green, yellow, orange (“oranges” or “orn-gee”), purple, black, white and pink. Brown is iffy, often confused with orange. He knows square, circle and star but I don’t think rectangle, triangle or heart. He’s stubborn and won’t let me quiz him, lol. He knows just about all his letters and sounds. Mama’s guess is that he’ll weigh 37 pounds and be 38 3/4 inches tall. Mama’s guess is also that I’ll be razzed about his weight. Again.
Upcoming important dates…
April 13- 10:30 Bren’s 3 year pedi appt
April 13- 3:40 22 week OB appt
April 13-17 Go visit the in-laws for Easter
April 20- First La Leche League meeting
May 18/May 25- 27/28 weeks: 3rd Trimester begins (take your pick)
June 3- 9:00-5:00 Labor Marathon class
June 5- 6:30-9:30 Breastfeeding class
June 6-7 Beach vacation
July 27- Full term at 37 weeks