Breathing Deeply

Oh friends, up in the air in my least favorite place for plans to be. Unfortunately, that's where our plans are for this baby boy. Quick reminder for those who missed any of the previous announcements via FB or Instagram - last weekend I ended up in L&D again for this searing, burning pain I've been having in my upper uterus. We did an ultrasound where we found out that Theo is measuring big* but that looked okay otherwise. Saturday we did an MRI, which was possibly the most stressful thing I've done ever. Being shoved into a tube at 9 months pregnant (after being told, "Hmm, I don't know if you'll fit!") was not pleasant in any sense. The first time I went in, I freaked out and nearly immediately yelled, "I don't think I can do this!" and was pulled out. The second time, I went in feet first and that was easier even though my head was still in the machine. Anyway, the results of that were normal as well. We were looking for a rupture in my uterus or any internal bleeding and they didn't see either. I was sent home with things in the air after being told by Dr. Man that we were going to reschedule the surgery to deliver him at 38 weeks rather than 39 weeks. My pain levels are incredibly high and I'm on medication that none of us are comfortable with me being on for too much longer. Wednesday I had my 37 week check up and we were officially scheduled for the c-section a week earlier on April 16th at 715am. (My brother in law's birthday, as well as my cousin's birthday, so it was perfect!) I still had to see my perinatologist, Dr. Risky, for an official consultation to deliver before 39 weeks but Dr. Man had assured me that Theo was big enough and should be completely healthy at 38 weeks. 

And here's where I begin to lose my cool. Friday (yesterday) I had an appointment with Dr. Risky. Without boring you with every single detail, the overview is as follows:

• He asked why I was having a c-section. I, to be completely honest, don't know. My best guess was the potential of placenta accreta because of my history. He asked if I wanted a c-section. I broke down. No. I never had asked for that and I'm still not really comfortable with it. If it were completely up to me, I would deliver at home! More realistically, I would attempt a vaginal delivery at the hospital. After a lot of back and forth, and a lot of tears, he suddenly remembered that I had been punctured during my last surgery so he actually DID agree that a c-section was better and safer. He did say, however, that I should have been given more of a choice and presented the pros and cons of surgery vs. vaginal delivery. (For the record, I would have chosen a vaginal delivery despite my family's reservations.) 
• He asked why I was wanting to deliver a week earlier than planned. Not something I requested so I didn't have an answer. I guess he was thinking that I had asked for this but I hadn't. He launched into the benefits of keeping baby in for an extra week, all of which I knew and had been worried about to begin with when presented with this early delivery. He was being very nice about all of this, I don't want it to sound like he was lecturing. That's not the case. 
• He asked me if I could wait another week because pain and a big baby* are not medical reasons enough to take baby early. Yes, I can. That being said, we just rescheduled everyone and everything in our life to accommodate this new date. April 23rd is my dad's 50th birthday and so when we locked in that date (months ago) I was ecstatic. I was super happy that we were able to get the 16th when we rescheduled. Both my dad and brother-in-law would be so excited to share their birthdays with this baby. Our doula has to change her schedule. My mom has to change her schedule. My mother in law has to change her schedule. I know all of this seems silly but to a person who plans things to the minute, this is stressful. Very stressful. 
• His official recommendation was to hold out that extra week. I am okay with that. I want a healthy baby. I want him to have the best possible start as we can possibly give him. 

Here's where the frustration is coming in. I feel betrayed by Dr. Man. I feel like he was rushing this so that he didn't have to deal with me anymore. I feel like my concerns were brushed aside. I don't understand why we would reschedule the surgery without seeing the perinatologist FIRST. I had gotten my head wrapped around delivering early and a new date and a new birthday for my child and even somewhat feeling settled about the c-section and then that was all thrown away. 

I know that if I were delivering him naturally and if I was waiting for my body to go into labor that I would have no control over any of this. However, that's not the case. Some people have said, "well, that's what it's like to not have a plan!" Understood. But I SHOULD have a plan 3 days before I was scheduled to have major surgery. Or even 10 days before I would have major surgery. I am trying my absolute best to breathe deeply and not worry and let go but I'm having a very hard time. Hormones coursing through my body, lack of sleep, incredible daily pain, and being 9 months pregnant is not really a great time to try to control my control issues. 

So, that's where I am. I am assuming that Dr. Man will not go against the specialist's recommendations and that I will not be having a baby this week. I assume that I will not have the date I wanted. I assume I will be dealing with the pain for another week. 

Please forgive me if in anytime in the next week I seem to be ignoring everyone. The end of pregnancy tends to turn me into a hermit. A very emotional hermit. Don't worry, there will be an announcement if baby comes early but aside from that, I think I may retreat as much as I can. I'm sorry for the emotional dump of this post but thank you for even reading. Writing this has been a huge help in processing my feelings.

Here's a video of my belly and a fun trick I like to do. 

*Big baby...well...at 36w5d he was measuring 40weeks. The hospital ultrasound said he weighed 7lbs 14oz.  Yesterday at 37w4d he measured at 39w6d and weighed 8lbs1oz. Dr. Risky's machine is a level II ultrasound which makes it more precise and more accurate. That being said, ultrasounds at this point in pregnancy are known for being WAY off. I know more than one woman who was induced early because of a "big" baby and had 7lb babies. That's not big. So I take the diagnosis of a big baby with a grain of salt and know that even if I were delivering naturally, it wouldn't matter. My body wouldn't make a baby it couldn't deliver. And especially because I'm having a c-section, it really doesn't matter! As long as Dr. Man can lift him out, he can be as big as he wants! Bring on a 12lb baby! 

18 (1/2) months & 36 Weeks

I'm getting really horrible at this again. But here's the thing. We moved! I'm 9 months pregnant! My daughter is a wild woman! I'm really, really, really freaking exhausted! So...I'm going to blame the aforementioned things for why I'm not blogging more. I often think of something throughout the day and say (to myself or sometimes out loud), "I should blog about that!" And then I eat some more and fall asleep. (Just kidding, sleeping is nearly impossible these days.) 

I'm going to skip a lot of the moving updates because who cares? Let's just go straight to the fun things about Junie and Theo.

I just found out that babycenter.com discontinued their chart and frankly, I'm a little miffed! Now it's just going to sound like I'm bragging about my baby. I guess I'll just rattle off some things that she does that I love.

June can now do somersaults and it's hilarious. Our new house has stairs and she's pretty much mastered those. We still have gates (well, one gate at the top and are going to get one for the bottom) but she can walk up and down with no help. She holds on to the railing and is shockingly steady on her feet. Yet again, she's really quite the athlete. 

She LOVES music. Miss Ashli comes to my mom's once a week and does an incredible music class for the daycare kids. June really loves grooving to the music and singing their fun songs. We turn on music while we eat dinner and she bops along and "sings." She doesn't have a ton of words yet. I'm a little concerned about that. She understands and follows directions, can sign about 5-6 phrases and has about 3ish words that she uses regularly. We talk to her all day, we read to her, we sing with her, I honestly don't know what else to do. Has anyone else had a daughter who was a late talker? I have read that if they're early walking then sometimes they're a little later talking. She started walking right before her first birthday so I don't think that's super early. 

June loves to eat. She loves bread, more specifically. She is a carb queen. I have found myself making dinners without carbs just so she'll maybe eat something else. Tonight we had salsa chicken on lettuce with beans and cheese. She ate a ton of beans, some chicken and lots of cheese. The lettuce, despite being cut up, was still a little hard to eat. Her dessert was two clementines. All of this good eating definitely shows! She's 29.5lbs and 31.75in tall which puts her in the 95% for both. She's in mostly 2T-3T clothes. Her torso is kind of funny. 2T shirts are too short but 3T is a little baggy. So we kind of just try to find things that work and stick with those! 

Overall, June is so much fun at a year and a half. I simply can't believe that she's going to be a big sister in TWENTY days! I think she's going to love her brother and relish her role as a big sis. 

TWENTY days until Theodore is here. I'm kind of floored at how fast this pregnancy went. It did drag at times but it's really snuck up on me! I kind of started packing a bag for the hospital but I still live in a lot of the things I plan to pack, like my two pair of black yoga pants and a few nursing tanks. I don't really have other things to wear so those may have to wait until the last minute. 

I'm feeling pretty...blah. I was actually feeling really great until about Saturday. Just all of a sudden I hit a wall and my body caught up to the fact that I'm 9 months pregnant. I am proud of myself for still running errands and keeping up with June. Not that I have a lot of choice in the matter but considering that I literally sat on the couch for the last month I was pregnant with June this is a huge deal. I'm just beginning to swell and it's mainly in my left foot. At the end of the day both ankles are gone but it's not as bad as it could be. My hands are great though and I can still wear my wedding rings. As of  two weeks ago I had gained 23lbs and was up to 201lbs. I go tomorrow to see Dr. Man and will report back my weight gain. I have been pretty hungry lately so I hope I haven't gained something crazy like 10lbs. Fingers crossed!

Speaking of weight - let's start a pool for how much everyone thinks Theo will weigh! Here are some factors to help you guess:

• He will be born at 39 weeks and 1 day.
• June was born at the same gestational age and weighed 8lbs 4oz.
• I weighed 8lbs 11oz.
• Thomas was 9lbs and a few oz. (I'm not certain, I think it was like 2oz.)
• Theo measured a week ahead up until recently. He's measuring on track as of 34 weeks. 

Let me know your guesses in the comments! The winner may receive a fun little prize! 

Vows

I've been wanting to post this for a while. Our one year wedding anniversary was December 23 and it had been a crazy first year of marriage. We continued to deal with my health complications, struggled to get pregnant, then actually got pregnant after we gave up, all while raising a free spirited daughter and trying to focus on our relationship. But here we are 14 months into a marriage, nearly 6 years into our relationship and we're both still standing.

Our vows were special. They were written by our officiant and rang true throughout our life. I love reading them because even though it's not the words that are the important part, it's the feeling behind them, I still need to be reminded of what we promised to each other. I've been neglecting our relationship and blaming the babies but it's time to put on my wife panties and be the woman Thomas married. (I have no idea what I mean by wife panties so don't ask.)

Here are our vows. We did say hell yeah and it was perfect. Thomas sang part of his and it was truly an encapsulation of my husband.

Thomas, do you take Amber to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her? (Hell yeah)

Will you please repeat this vow to Amber, saying after me: I, Thomas, take you, Amber, to be my wife and companion. I will be your rock. I will be your endless supply of hugs and kisses. I will be steadfast in times of peril. I will turn cartwheels in times of celebration. I will love you as the beautiful, young woman you are today, and I will love you as the cranky, crotchety old woman that you will some day become. I will be your man—yours and yours alone. And I will be that man forever and ever after.

Amber, do you take Thomas to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only unto him? (Hell yeah)

Will you please repeat this vow to Thomas, saying after me: I, Amber, take you, Thomas, to be my husband and companion. I will be your rock. I will be your endless supply of hugs and kisses. I will be steadfast in times of peril. I will turn cartwheels in times of celebration. I will love you as the handsome, young man that you are today, and I will love you as the hunch-backed, ornery old man that you will some day become. I will be your woman—yours and yours alone. And I will be that woman forever and ever after.

We also danced to "Forever and Ever, Amen" by Randy Travis.

Forever and ever. And ever.

17 Months, 30 Weeks and Hospital Visits

Apparently I'm going to write once a month from here on out. Sorry, I'm a slacker! I can't even lie and say that I've been doing fun things. If you follow me on Instagram (find me - AmberKellogg) you'll have seen that a lot of what I've been doing is...laying around. And complaining. And eating. But today is a good day. I napped for a solid hour in which I was out cold and it felt like 4 hours. Absolutely wonderful. So let's move onto the kiddos.

June is now 17 months old and it's so weird to me that she's almost a year and a half. I really wonder how the pregnancy has changed her. She's so smart and I often wonder if she's growing up faster because of how fast my body and our family is changing. Does that make sense? She's a sweet, sweet baby these days. She has been giving me completely free kisses where she will be playing around the house, come over to me, put all of her stuff down and kiss me. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. Seriously. So incredible. Let's look at our Baby Center Chart.

Child's Age

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)

17 months

Uses six wordsregularly Enjoys pretend games Likes riding toys

Feeds doll Speaks more clearly Throws a ball underhand

Dances to music Sorts toys by color, shape, or size Kicks ball forward

Her words are still not completely there. I would say she uses 6 words - yeah, hi, momma/mommy, daddy...maybe not 6. She has said several words within the past week completely out of the blue, like Mickey. I had a Mickey Mouse mug and she looked at it and said, "Mickey!" Loved it. Also, what do you think about counting "momma" and "mommy" as different words? Because they're not the same but they are very close. Moving on, she does enjoy pretend games like playing with her baby doll. She nurses her baby, puts the baby to sleep, and today I even got a picture of her laying down for her nap with her baby. She's LOVED riding toys since she was like 11 months old. Still does.

She does feed her doll, like I said before. She is so cute nursing her dolls. I love that she just naturally does it even though she only nursed for a few weeks as a newborn. It's just such a natural instinct and she definitely picked that up. Speaking more clearly...oh man. Well, I guess she is but it's really not super clear still. She said, "please" the other day and that was pretty clear and a new word but it's a lot of vocalizations without super clear words. She throws a ball underhand though! Of course she's more of an athlete than a speaker. 

June is a super dancer. It's one of my all time favorite things to see. We'll put on music in the car and just watch her do her pointing dance where she literally just points in the air to the beat. She also can clap to the beat. It's impressive seeing as how I can't even do that. I'm not sure if she can sort by color,shape or size - I'll have to to test that. She definitely can kick a ball forward. Again, this child is a natural athlete.

So far, I've really enjoyed every stage she's been in but this one is super fun. She's a natural performer and makes us laugh all day. The flip side is definitely her very strong willed personality where she can throw a fit like nobodies business. You take the good with the bad, I guess. 

I'm now 30 weeks pregnant and this boy is h-e-a-v-y. I asked Dr. Man if he thinks Theodore will be bigger than June and he said, "I actually think he'll be around the same or smaller." I'm still betting on bigger but it is true that I'm measuring right on schedule whereas with June I was consistently measuring a week or two ahead. I've also gained less weight at the same point as I had with her. As of yesterday, at 30 weeks, I've gained 18 pounds. At 32 weeks with June, I had gained 26. Granted, I could still gain 8 pounds in the next two weeks, I'm doubting that I will. Like I said in this post, I wanted to stay under 200lbs and only gain around 20lbs. I started this pregnancy 10lbs heavier so I think I'm actually doing pretty okay. I try not to beat myself up over silly things like weight but 6 pounds in 4 weeks is a lot. Again, Dr Man is really great and told me that 18lbs in 30 weeks is awesome and he's very pleased. What is weird to me, though, is that I lost weight in the beginning and at 18 weeks had only really gained one pound. So technically, I've gained 17lbs in 12 weeks. Not as great sounding as 18 in 30 but whatever. Anyway, enough about weight! 

I was in the hospital nearly two weeks ago for what we all thought was a kidney infection. Turns out, it was nothing. The good news is, I got two days of a little vacation and while it wasn't really fun being bed ridden and having to get help to pee (every 45 minutes, seriously, I've never peed so much in my life), it was exactly what I needed. I am not good at resting and haven't quite found that balance of house/family and my own health/baby needs. We did find out that Theo is a wild man and will NOT show his face on ultrasounds. Neither did June. I hope that isn't an indication of his personality because it sure was for her! I also got to hear a baby being born while there. I cannot put into words how amazing and incredible it was to hear that. I heard a woman moan, "OH GOD! OH GOD!" and not seconds later a baby cried. I heard a roar of coos and cries and it immediately transported me back to that feeling of relief and love when June was placed on my chest for the first time. There is absolutely nothing like that in the world.

Tonight we're meeting with our incredible and fabulous doula, Becky. I'm really excited to get things finalized (and started!) on our birth plan for Theo's big day. Even though we'll be having a c-section, it's still important to us to have someone there to be with me in recovery so Thomas can focus only on Theodore. My mom will also be there and as much as you all know I love my mother, she's not the most reliable emotional support. She just loves her grandbabies so much that she's really there for them and that's what I want her there for! Only 9 more weeks until we get to meet this little man! 

I know this is a long post but here's what you're really here for - pictures!

Sunday morning fun. I love that sweet face!

Getting that grilled cheese at In'N'Out!

That face. Oh, that face.

A few days difference between the two but you get the idea. I think I look fatter with June because it was late July/August and freaking HOT. And I'm actually wearing makeup in Theo's. Lucky boy.

16 Months, Debbie Downer, & 27 Weeks

Let me start by apologizing. I'm sorry I've been MIA. I've been pretty down and, frankly, depressed lately. When I feel depressed I tend to withdraw and become a little bit of a hermit. I talked to my doctor because some days I can't stop crying. I try to not let on to anyone, including family, that I'm feeling so helpless but it was becoming too much. Dr. Man suggested I get in touch with a therapist and explore therapy. He agreed that life these days is pretty hectic and that alone could be making me feel like I do but with my history of depression that it's a good idea to talk to a professional. I don't feel like this is my typical depression that I've dealt with before, that - for me - is a much deeper and darker place. That depression keeps in me bed and contemplating all sorts of negative things. This is much more surface level depression. I'm overwhelmed and very weepy. So guys, keep me in your thoughts. If you've ever dealt with depression and need someone to talk to please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I've been through it all! 

Now on to some fun stuff! June is 16 months old! Right now she has RSV and we've had one of the worst and saddest weeks we've ever had. But before this week, she was as happy as my darling could be. She's really becoming such a big kid. Tonight we took a bath together and she was pretty interested in my belly. She helped me wash it with soap and then washed her own. It was the most fun we've had all week! Let's look at our Baby Center chart - 

16 months

Turns the pages of abook Has temper tantrums when frustrated Becomes attached to a soft toy or other object

Discovers the joy of climbing Stacks three blocks Uses spoon or fork Learns the correct way to use common objects (e.g., the telephone)

Takes off one piece of clothing by himself Gets finicky about food Switches from two naps to one

June is a voracious reader and loves turning the pages. Temper tantrums...um...yeah. Those have been going on for a while. She's been very attached to her dear Bunny for months.

Oh man, she's definitely discovered the joy of climbing! She an climb onto the couch, chairs, and onto our bed. Junie is the master of the fork. It's pretty adorable. She also knows how to correctly use common objects.

June can put on and take off multiple pieces of clothes - pants, shirts, shoes, socks. In fact, mornings are a little crazy because she often refuses to let us put clothes on her, she must do it herself. Sadly, she's becoming finicky about food. She used to eat ANYTHING but the kid has a mind of her own. She's not a huge fan of chicken which was a huge staple of our diet. June's naps went down to one about 4 months ago. So incredibly sad for me but her afternoon nap is generally about 2.5 - 3 hours which is plenty of time for me to rest and get a few things done around the house. 

Another big thing in the Kellogg world is that I'm officially on disability. I've been off work for nearly 3 weeks and it's been wonderful for our family. I'm still learning to rest and how to slow down but it's been really nice to spend time with June and craft and lay in bed. 

We've made it to the third trimester! Baby Theodore is growing and moving like crazy. It's interesting how different these pregnancies have been. I'm carrying much, much lower. He prefers my right side as well as digging into my right hip/bladder as slowly and hard as he can. I don't remember being this uncomfortable with June! He does the most hilariously painful thing - Theo with burrow his head into my bladder, two feet into my ribs and his tiny hands into my hips. He completely stretches out into what feels like a starfish position. I wish I had my own ultrasound machine to see exactly what he's doing in there! 11 more weeks until we get to meet sweet boy!

Quick update on my weight: I started this pregnancy at 179 and told myself that I could not gain more than 20 pounds. I do not want to be over 200lbs. I had done really well, mainly because I was so sick and didn't gain any weight until I was 18 weeks. My 22 week check up was the day after Christmas. I was a little scared to step on the scale but figured it couldn't be that bad. It was. I gained 8lbs. IN FOUR WEEKS. I had done that with June also but not until 28 weeks. So after that I got serious. I cut down my carbs, I watched what I shoved into my face and I drank a ton more water. So four more weeks later, at my 26 week check up, I had only gained two pounds. While I wish it had been nothing, it was better than 8! So I'm now up to 190 and have 11 weeks to gain 10ish pounds. I'm giving myself a little more leeway and hoping to stay under 205 but hey, I'm happy with this now. My next check up is at 30 weeks so I'm curious how much I will have gained then! 


Sorry for the piling on of info and down-er-ness but I needed to get it off my chest! And NOW FOR PICTURES!

My darling baby doll. I just love that face!

26 weeks pregnant with June and 26 weeks with Theo. I should start doing more side by sides!

Probably the saddest picture of my doll baby ever. This was the first day of being sick and she was miserable. I can't wait until this passes!

The Hand I'm Dealt

Baby Theo has been hard on me. Hard on us, I should say. First trimester was full of puke and headaches and so far the second trimester has been the trimester of exhaustion and pain. While I am looking forward to the third trimester, I'm looking more forward to April 23.

I haven't been feeling awesome, and in turn, my emotions have taken over. It's hard to make it through the day without welling up with tears or, more likely, overflowing with tears. My pregnancy with June made my emotions so level but this time I'm quite a wreck. I don't know if it's because I'm having a boy or because I feel exhausted every minute of the day but I'm feeling pretty emotionally drained.

My doctor has taken note of my physical discomfort and how that's wearing me thin. He highly recommended I go on disability and even more highly recommended that I get more help when on disability. Apparently he knows you don't rest much with a 15 month old. So January 14, I go on short term disability. My mom will have June two days a week and my mother-in-law will have her one day a week. I have quite a bit of guilt regarding this but frankly, I'm on the brink of an exhausted breakdown.

To be honest, I'm ready to rest but still worried about work/money/life in general. I don't quite know what will happen with my job. I do get a portion of my pay while on disability but after 22 weeks of being away from work (14 weeks until he gets here and 8 weeks maternity leave because of the c-section) I just don't know where I'll stand with my company. I hate the thought of leaving a 2 month old but at the same time, I do enjoy working.

So friends, I'm in need of some good thoughts, prayers, vibes, voodoo, whatever you believe. This transition is proving to be more stressful than I expected and I wish I could sleep for the next few weeks.

Also, any suggestions for good books? I'm going to attempt to read and truly rest as much as possible in the next 3 months. Wish me luck!

15 Months Old, 22 Weeks Pregnant and Christmas

We've got a lot going on in the Kellogg home. June is officially 15 months old, baby Theo has been in my belly for 22 weeks now, tomorrow is Christmas and yesterday was Thomas' and my one year wedding anniversary. I wanted to write a quick blog about it all but I have a feeling this will turn into something longer. You can pick and choose what you read, I promise I won't be mad.

June is 15 months old. It blows my mind how she's like a real mini human now. She's had a pretty bad cold for the past week and it's very sad. This is the first time she's been sick like this and while it's not quite as bad as the Hand Foot and Mouth sickness went through (thank God!), she's miserable nonetheless. She has a wet cough that sounded a lot like croup to me so I took her to the doctor last week and it's just a virus so we're doing Motrin, some Benadryl to dry her out and lots of cuddling. She's started sleeping in our bed and while I always dreamed of co-sleeping with my kids - it's much different than I expected! She's not a cuddler and takes up most of our king size bed. Most mornings I wake up with a foot in my face or a head in my shoulder blades. I really don't mind it but I do worry a little about when Theo is born and how our transition will go. I planned on co-sleeping with him because I'll be nursing but now that June has invaded our bed I don't want to have a newborn and a toddler in there at once. Any advice? 

Let's take a look at our Baby Center Milestone Chart. 

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)

Plays with ball Uses three words regularly Walks backward

Scribbles with a crayon Runs Adopts "no" as his favorite word

"Helps" around the house Puts his fingers to his mouth and says "shhh"

(Can I pat myself on the back real quick for not messing up the chart this month? Holla!)

So June LOVES throwing and kicking balls. I wish I knew how to link to a video because our dear friend Leo was cracking her up by kicking a soccer ball the other day. It was possibly the cutest 4 minutes of my life. She uses the words Momma, Dadda and yeah. She's starting to babble a lot more but still doesn't have a ton of words. I'm not too worried though. Walking backward? Honestly, I don't know that we've ever had a need to do that. I guess I have seen her playing with her cousins and if they push a toy with her standing at the back she will walk backward with it. But does that count? 

June LOVES crayons. We just started coloring this month and she's really into it. She's been running for two months, wild girl. I don't think she says no yet. Thank goodness. I'm sure that's coming.

She does help around the house. We can tell her to put her clothes in her hamper and she will do that as well as kind of picking up her toys. I'll have to test her with the "shh" thing. I don't think she's ever seen us do it so we'll see!

A week ago we had our official gender scan for baby boy. Our perinatologist was easily able to confirm that Theodore is a boy! Baby boy wasn't shy and gave us a show! He was also much less active than June was at this point. I'm praying that holds true for after he's born too. The ultrasound was amazing. As many of you know, I have a syndrome called Asherman's. I'm not going to go into it again but look around the blog and you'll find lots of info about it. So Dr. Risky (not his real name, I'm dubbing him this because he's a high-risk doctor...and it makes me laugh) showed us all of Theodore's body and his organs working in perfect form. These ultrasounds are my favorite because you get to see, in depth, the inner workings of their tiny bodies. It's absolutely amazing to watch them stretch their muscles and rub their eyes but then to see their heart beating away and their kidneys flushing fluids. During this ultrasound we also saw that the gestational sac grew around the scar tissue I have left. I only have two strands of thick scar tissue left in my uterus as this sweet baby has opened it almost all the way but there's one larger one that the baby is growing around. It's hard to explain and Dr. Risky had to show us from several angles for us to fully understand what was going on. But, basically, the baby implanted in a great spot and then grew around the scar tissue which slowly pushed all of it open. So this last hold out strand of tissue is being pressed on by the sac. He said it may open and stretch or it may be too thick to get through. Either way, the baby is growing perfectly and using the space he has to keep moving and growing. It was all pretty insane to see in front of us. 

Our c-section is officially scheduled for April 23 at 715am. That's my dad's 50th birthday and he is very excited to share his special day. We also have more than a few double (and triple) birthdays on each side of the family so this is an exciting tradition. My sister was born on my grandmother's 50th birthday too! April will be here before we know it! 

Christmas is upon us and I am so excited to see June's reaction to presents. She wasn't interested in opening things on her birthday but we'll see this time! We even have a few things under the tree for Theo. 

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Christmas! 

June looks so sad. At least she's showing emotion! (Also, my Grandpa is a real beard Santa - he is the best Santa ever. Seriously.) ((Also, why does my belly look so weird?!))

June and Santa having a staring contest.

SHE'S ALMOST SMILING.

(From L-R) My mom (Lisa), my dear friend Stacy, me, my sister Emily and my sister's dear friend Kelsey. We made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and they were incredible!