37 Weeks

Here I am at 37 weeks, and ready to be done...almost. 

Spencer took a picture of me today, sorry for the blurriness of it all, and I do look like I have grown since the last picture I took at 34 weeks. The baby is probably between 7.5 lbs and 8 lbs. right now, and I still have two weeks to go. In fact, because I am having a repeat c-section, and he's on the bigger side they are going to have me go in to have the baby at 39 weeks!!! Which is two weeks away from today! I'm very excited about it, but know that these next two weeks are going to be hard still. 

For the past month my doctors have been keeping a close eye on this little man's growth and also my blood pressure. One appointment I was up to 150/110, but after a 10 minute rest I went down to 120/80. My normal is 110/70, so they have been concerned with it the past two weeks of having it at 120/90. So far, thankfully, I have not been diagnosed with preeclampsia (which is high blood pressure and could be bad for baby and I). I've gone to the hospital to do tests, I've had more blood drawn at the doctor's office, and everything comes back okay, it's just those darn numbers won't go down when they take the blood pressure. At least though, if anything does or did happen I'm close enough to the due date that having the baby would be no problem.

How is the little guy doing so far? GREAT! He moves constantly (not even kidding one bit, even at 3am and then continues for an hour of moving around), punching and kicking has not let up one bit, and so I'm pretty sure my insides are black and blue. He gets hiccups at least 3 times a day, and has steadily been growing. My belly has become a source of entertainment for me with the kicks and bulges coming out every which way. 

How is Spencer doing with all of this? Pretty good. He has been the most patient kid in the world this summer with a very pregnant mom not wanting to sit out in the hot sun (we try to get to the parks in the morning when it's not so hot), and we have played lots of games. He is getting excited and is always concerned if I feel pain of any kind (braxton hicks have also made their appearance). He's going to be an awesome big brother. 

So that is the update of the pregnancy. Next post will be more of the creativity of Spencer. 

Marshmallow Structures

Here are our Marshmallow structures that we made one day. 

This is my man, and Spencer made me a dog with blue ears, and a small door. 

Spencer's creations were a man riding his dog, and another door.

The artist and his creation. 

We'll probably do this again, but use small marshmallows along with the big ones. I thought it was great Spencer figured out how to make other things besides a person. I was stuck after that. Glad he's around to help me be more creative. 

34 Weeks

Here I am at 34 weeks with Baby boy 2, and as you can see no wedding ring can be found....reason being is that it's so dang hot and I swell. Tyler and I agreed that we didn't want to have me have the ring cut off if it got too tight, so no ring for now. :( Which is sad, but I had to let you know, so you didn't think something else was going on! It also does not look like I grew in the last 6 weeks, but I have, and I feel it! 

My doctors have been keeping a close watch on this little boy, and wanting to make sure he doesn't get too big. I had a sonogram 3 weeks ago and baby boy was in the 60th percentile for weight at 4 lbs. 1 oz. So no worries, except my doctor saw me last week and was saying that I didn't look very big. But with Spencer I didn't grow very large either. I held him real close, and probably looked like what I do right now when I gave birth to him. It was a surprise to us all that a 9 pound baby could fit in there. So, yes I'm still sure this boy will be big, even though I'm not sticking out much for other people. For me, I feel like I'm already over due. 

One other thing about this picture is that I'm 90% sure I was having a braxton hicks contraction while the photo was taken. Normal, but trying to smile when my tummy is getting tight, not so easy. 

So far this pregnancy has been very different from my first, lots more little aches and pains. This boy is also WAY more active than Spencer ever was, and he gets hiccups more often too. Spencer I could tell what time of day it was because it was always at 6pm at night. This one likes to hiccup during the afternoons, after dinner, after ice cream, oh and his favorite time is right when I'm trying to fall asleep. Other than that, things have been going very smoothly. I washed the baby clothes and blankets the other day and it was so fun to know that in just barely over a month this little one will be here!!! YAY!! We cannot wait to see him, hold him, cuddle him, love him, and kiss him. 

Summer

Being pregnant this summer is not ideal to keep Spencer entertained or being able to go outside in this heat, so we had a grand idea of making a Summer List of all the things Spencer can do with me or on his own this summer. The list he came up with is pretty great!! So we thought we would share with you:

As you can see many of these things are the same, but to Spencer they are very different. There are a few things on here that I'm really happy Spencer has put on here like doing Math, and reading. Especially when he agreed on reading a classic book with me this summer, which we have picked to be Treasure Island. The read-a-thon is something we have all been able to have fun with. We've only been reading for a week and Spencer is still in the lead. We count how many pages we've read and Spencer is at 469 pages, I am at 426 pages, and Tyler is around 390. This is just after ONE WEEK!?!?! I'm so happy he is having fun with it, and reading lots. Whoever has the highest number of pages read at the end of the summer gets to pick a prize for themselves. 

While the summer continues I will probably put up some posts about some of the fun things we have done. So far, we have been busy and done well. YAY for summer!!!

Last Day of School

This was Spencer on his first day of school for 2nd grade. What a cute kid!!!

THIS is Spencer on his last day of 2nd Grade with his AMAZINGLY wonderful teacher Allison. 

What a difference just nine months has made!? He looks so much older now and he has learned so much!!! I have to boast about his teacher that he had this year, she was amazing. Spencer started off the year a little rough, and she was worried about it. I had to go and see her a few times, then realized that she had no idea what Spencer was going through. So the next meeting we had at the beginning of the year, I let her know that the first day of school he was just coming from living in a hotel for a week, we moved into our apartment on the first day of school, he had NONE of his stuff for the past 4 months, and we were just moving back into the United States. She heard this and everything made sense. She always has been willing to help us push him more, and to help some odd habits he has. Plus she also thinks he's just the sweetest boy ever (yes he will not like I said that, but o-well).

She also had a way in which whenever she spoke Spencer was hooked. He would come home and tell us all that Allison said that day, and all that he learned. He loved learning from her, especially with the bird study they did at the end of the year. Spencer is a master bird finder, watcher and listener now. It's pretty cool to watch him go outside and hear a bird and say "Did you hear that? That was a house sparrow!" Or see a bird and figure out which one it was, especially when Grandpa Price called him to ask him about a bird he saw outside the window of his living room. And guess what? Spencer figured it out!!!! 

Spencer's 2nd grade year here in New York has gone by quickly and he has done well, as his report card showed us. YAY!!! Favorite subject this year: Math (we don't know where that came from). 

We now have a THIRD grader!! 

Fireworks!!

Being this our first summer in New York, we were excited to find out that we would most likely have a great view of the 4th of July fireworks. To make it easier on if we should be here or not, I'm eight months pregnant, so no traveling for me. Which made our decision easy to sit at home in the cool A/C and watch the fireworks from our living room window. We did have some doubts on how well we would be able to see them, but as you will see, it's pretty fantastic! 

Two hours before the show and boats were already gathering on the Hudson. There were four barges with the fireworks on them, one of them you can see the flat part on the right side of the picture.

One more hour to go, more boats, and the FDNY sprayers going.

NYPD helicopters coming in force to make sure all is well. 

Spencer ready in his seat. 

This was about a half an hour before the show started. 

20 minutes and the show starts!!! See all those blue and red lights?? Yeah, those are all the police boats in the river. 

The first fireworks!!!! YES, we can see them!!!!!

This is to get a better view of how we were seeing them. You can see the street below, so really not too shabby.

Hearts! We found out there were 30 different shapes for the fireworks. We tried to catch them all.

 Happy faces!

Beautiful!!

Fireworks are awesome!

Blurry but love the red, white and blue.

Finale.

The fireworks were awesome, even though we put the music from the TV on in the background, to which we quickly figured out the TV was 10 seconds behind our live view. So...next year we'll have to get the music on the radio or something. Overall, we'll be spending July 4th here again next year, it was GREAT!!!!

I was trying to get a video on here of the massive exodus of people and boats at the end of the show, but the video does not want to load. I'll keep trying, BUT it was crazy to see all the people from the park leaving and crowding the streets, and then also all the boats going back down the river. I was happy we could be home already and put Spencer straight to bed, and me too. Overall, a FANTASTIC July 4th. 

side note: in the last blog post I put up a picture of fireworks from I'm guessing last year's show here in NYC, but wanted to let you know that I did not take that picture. I found it online, but loved how it looked with the NYC skyline in the background, so it was taken from Jersey. Just so you know.

Happy July 4th!!!

We had to wish everyone a HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!! 

I think this is one of our favorite holidays because we love America, and all that it is and the freedom that is here. Living overseas we always get a different perspective of what a great country the USA is. Now being here in America for the 4th of July and living here, we can't say that we feel any different. Yes, we have our differences in this country but that's what makes it so great. Different ideas make what this country is today. I'm just thankful we are not under any kind of dictatorship, and we are free to choose which religion we practice, and we have so many rights as citizens. We can complain a lot about what we don't have and that we don't have enough or that the government is corrupt, but to me, it is nothing compared to how others live. I love this country and am so excited we get to celebrate its birthday!!

Living in New York means we get to see the fireworks here!!!! And guess what?? Our apartment looks out over the Hudson River, so I can't wait to sit in a cool apartment and watch the wonderful display of fireworks to celebrate this great day!!! Hamburgers and corn on the cob for dinner....what could be better?!?! 

Wishing you all a happy 4th of July today and that we take a moment to just relax, celebrate, and forget any complaints we may have, this country is great!!!