31 Weeks

Last Tuesday I went back to my doctor for another sonogram to check in on Beckett.  During our last sonogram, he was so active that the sonographer was not able to get one photo of an area of his heart so she wanted to be sure and capture it that day.  He continued to be pretty active but luckily he stood still long enough for her to get what she needed.  He is head down already which is good, but I feel him flip around quite often.  Beckett is currently 4lbs, and measuring to be over 8lbs once he makes his arrival.  We were also told that Grayson was going to be over 9lbs and he came out at 7lbs, 5oz so Beckett could still be pretty average weight.  My total weight gain so far in this pregnancy is only 6lbs.  I attribute the lack of weight gain to the 16 weeks I was unable to eat regularly and possibly losing weight in other areas with all of it now being focused on my mid-section.  As long as Beckett is healthy and growing (which he appears to be), that's all that matters.  My appointments are now every 2 weeks and will pick up to every week when I'm 36 weeks.  Not too much longer!

Beckett had his hand over his face

He was also trying to grab his feet...I can feel him doing that alot

On the home front, we finally finished Grayson's room and moved him up there this weekend!  My little baby is officially a big boy sleeping in a big boy bed.  In true Grayson fashion, he made the transition as easy as ever.  On Friday night, Shane took him upstairs to read to him and planned on spending a lengthy amount of time getting him to stay in his bed.  After our usual bedtime routine, Shane laid with him for a short while and then left the room.  We didn't hear a peep from Grayson until Saturday morning.  He slept in his bed all night!  The next night he cried for about 30 seconds at the door, then climbed in his bed and passed out.  Sunday he even slept an hour later than normal.  Naps are still a bit of a challenge, but something we will continue to work on each weekend.  He seems to really like his bed and his room.  We are trying to spend more time upstairs since it is becoming more of his area.

Here is alittle about his room.  His bed is a full size platform bed that Shane built (he's so handy!).  We used one of our existing mattresses so we didn't have an extra expense, plus he will be able to sleep in this bed for a long time as opposed to purchasing a toddler bed for only a year.  I got the quilt and pillows from Pottery Barn Kids.  The sheets are from Target and Clouds and Stars (they are the quick zip sheets like we had in his crib that you can quickly zip on/off...love them!).  The curtains are plain white curtains from Ikea that my mom and I painted stripes on to match the bedding.  Shane also "built" and installed the shelf over his bed.  It's basically plumbing pipes with a stained board lying across them.  The letters spelling out his name are a string art project of mine.  The dresser is from Ikea.  It's similar to what was in his nursery, only bigger so he can grow into it.  We made a small reading corner for him using some spice racks from Ikea to hold his books.  They are the perfect height for him to grab the books he wants and read.  And the shadow boxes are another project of mine that I had seen in a magazine a long time ago.  I thought they would always look so cute in a kids room.  He likes to point at them and say what's in each one.  

Grayson's new room!

Reading corner

Close up of shadow boxes

I also made a few updates to his bathroom by getting a new shower curtain, some new rugs, installing some similar shelves over the toilet and putting up some letters to spell out "wash your hands".  Shane is also going to make a towel rack to replace the chrome one we have that will be stained to match the new shelves.  I think it makes it alittle more kid friendly now.

Shane is getting ready to go back to school next week and things are slowly winding down for me at work.  My new position is still semi-seasonal, but now that the pools are closing, things are starting to pick up at our ball fields so the maintenance side of things will have me pretty occupied.  

Only 8-9 more weeks until we meet Mr. Beckett and only 11 weeks until my precious baby boy turns 2!  

Eating "sketti"

The fork in his right hand is merely an accessory.

He loves walking around in our shoes.  

I need to get a photo of him in Shane's running shoes....it's so cute!

Off to school!

29 Weeks

It is sort of shocking, but with only 10-11 weeks left until we meet baby Beckett, there is not much to report.  I feel like I have more energy but some days I find myself pretty tired if I do too much.  The good news is, I passed my gestational diabetes test so no diet for me!  Shane and I have been spending some time working on Gray's room and rearranging the upstairs living area to make it more of a family room the last couple of weekends.  I'm also working to do a small remodel of the bathroom upstairs to make it more kid oriented since that will be Gray's bathroom, and eventually Grayson and Beckett's bathroom in a couple of years.  Shane can definitely tell I'm starting to nest with all of the things I have been doing/changing around the house.  :)  Once everything is completed, I will post pictures.  We are getting close so it should not be much longer.

Last week Grayson finished his parent and tot swim lessons at my aquatics facility.  He definitely has a love of water and always feels comfortable getting in so that is one skill he has mastered over the last year.  While we were on vacation in Belize, we went to the pool regularly and he would always say, "kick, kick, kick" and practice kicking his feet.  He even started putting his face in the water to blow bubbles so I knew he was ready for class.  Of course once we started class, he didn't want to kick or put his face in the water to blow bubbles.  On the rare occasion we could get him to comply, but usually it took our instructor, Madison, asking him to do something before he would do it.  (Side note: we are raising a future teacher's pet.)  A couple of other things he can now do after taking class is hold on to the gutter and work his way down the wall, climb out of the pool using the ladder and jump in from the side with assistance.  I don't expect him to actually be swimming until he is about 3-4 years old, but I do want to make him comfortable with the water and learn a few basics so when he does start taking lessons without me, he's prepared.  The last night of class Shane came out and took some photos.  What you can't tell in these photos is how absolutely cold the water is.  I waited until session 4 to sign him up because the water temperature is usually pleasant, but we happened to experience a random cold front the last week of class which had the outside temperature in the low to mid 70's and the water temperature in the low 80's.  Luckily the last class is only about 25 minutes.

Gray's teacher, Miss Madison
He loved saying her name.

Doing passes with Miss Madison 

Kick, kick, kick 

 Hanging on to the gutter all by himself

 Climbing out using the ladder

 Jumping in from the side

 "London bridge is falling down...."

 Practicing blowing bubbles

Singing the "bye bye" song.  

He loved being on the mats.

One other project Shane finally completed was getting Gray's swing that Santa bought him hung up on our patio (yes, 7 months later).  After a few different ideas and attempts, he finally settled on these hooks that are used for porch swings.  They just screwed into the beams on our patio and we can unhook his swing and store it in the garage when it's not being used.  It's gotten warmer outside so he's only been in it a couple of times, but we hope we can spend more time on the patio this fall while we're spending lots of time at home with little Beckett.  

We only have 9-10 weekends left until Beckett arrives.  We are hoping to spend as much one on one time with Grayson as we can but seem to have something going on just about every weekend.  I realize how precious our time is with him as an only child and want to embrace it as much as possible.  I'm headed to the doctor on August 12 for another sonogram to see how big Beckett has grown.  I can tell he's starting to run out of room in there as my stomach looks possessed on many occasions when he twists and turns.  My doctor is predicting he could come as early as week ahead of my due date since Grayson was a couple of days early.  We are not planning to induce or schedule anything with Beckett.  With Grayson we planned to induce on his due date, but I don't see the need to rush getting Beckett out.  I feel like it's better to just let him come when he's ready.  My doctor doesn't like going too far past the due date, but we will cross that bridge if we get to it.  It does make me sad that Grayson's 2nd birthday is only 9 days after my due date.  I am going to plan as much as I can prior to going into the hospital, but the actual date and time will be unknown until after Beckett comes.  His 1st birthday was pretty low key and I don't see this one being too much different.  I want to be sure we celebrate with Grayson but I also have to consider that we will have a newborn at home.  I have to take Beckett's needs and our lifestyle change into consideration.  If we have #3, I will need to try to make sure they are more of a spring baby and space these birthdays out.  ;)

27 Weeks

On Sunday, I hit 27 weeks.  It doesn't sound like I'm too far along, but when I realize I only have 13 weeks left...the reality of how soon Beckett will be here starts to hit me.  Luckily we do not have much to do to prepare for his arrival.  I just need to wash Gray's 0-3 month clothes I packed away, make a few updates to the nursery (name and crib mattress height) and buy diapers in his size.  Our biggest project is getting Gray ready for his big boy room!

Before we left for Belize, Shane built Gray the bed that will go in his room.  It's a full size so we could utilize mattresses we already had, and it also allows us room to sleep if we have to spend a night with him while he's adjusting to his new room or sick.  The bed is very low to the ground so he won't have too far to fall if he does roll off.  This past Friday we made a trip to Ikea to buy his dresser, a bedside table, shelves to hold his books for a reading corner, curtains and another storage unit to go upstairs in the game room to house his toys.  Then Sunday we went to Pottery Barn Kids to buy his chair for the reading corner.  It was good timing because they were having a one day sale on those chairs!  This weekend I plan to go buy the rest of the items we need to finish putting his room together so my mom can help me next week while she's in town.  I have a cute idea for some shadow boxes on his walls and a fun way to display his name, but I will hold off on disclosing those until I see how well they turn out.  :)

My next appointment is on Tuesday morning and I have the wonderful glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes.  I passed with flying colors last year so here's hoping I do well again!

Belize

It's been a week since Shane, Gray and I returned from an amazing trip to Belize with our good friends Bobby and Sam.  We flew in to Belize City on Wednesday, July 9 and took a puddle jumper over to Ambergris Caye Island.  Once we arrived, a taxi picked us up and took us to our resort.  We had a "booking.com" moment on the way to the resort as we drove through the town of San Pedro, over a toll bridge and then onto the dirt road that ran in front of our resort.  Luckily it was just a gorgeous as the pictures on the internet had depicted.  We checked in and ate dinner at the resort so we could get settled into the condo.

Our condo was 2 bedrooms, 2 bath with a nice living area, kitchen and a beautiful patio.  We had daily maid and laundry service which was great because we did not have to bring as many clothes with us and were able to pack light.  Sam and I went to town the morning after we arrived and bought some groceries to get us through the week.  We had our own golf cart during the trip that we could use to go into town to shop or eat dinner. The rest of the 6 day trip was spent hanging out by the pool, walking on the beach, reading, exploring the town, eating delicious food at different restaurants, snorkeling with sharks, sting rays, eels and turtles and relaxing as much as possible.  One morning Sam and I were able to relax at this spa on the south side of the island that was on a dock over the water.  

Gray had a great time!  It was his first time to fly so we were nervous how he would handle the flight, but he did so well.  No matter what we did, he sat quietly and just took in all the new experiences.  We were so proud of him the entire trip and could not believe how quickly he would adjust to the changes.  

I am so glad we were able to go on this amazing vacation and take Gray with us to share in our experience.  He was able to get his first stamp in his passport, which is only the first of many to come.  We have every intention of showing Grayson and Beckett the world and traveling as much as we can as a family.  

View from our balcony

Dinner at Aji
Just a short walk down the beach from our resort

Aunt Sam giving Gray a lift back to the condo

Yep, I got a parking ticket in town on our golf cart.
I paid a small fine of $12 to stay out of a Belizean prison.

Gulf of Mexico 2013 - check
Caribbean Sea 2014 - check

Full Moon during dinner one evening

Quick family pic while waiting on our water taxi

We discovered Gray did not like his feet to get dirty.

I had to get some photos of my gorgeous boy on the beach!

He is saying "boat".

Love this girl! 

Gray helped mommy drive into town a few times.

Snorkel excursion

The group of nurse sharks we swam with near the
Hol Chan Marine Reserve off the Barrier Reef

Our guide would take sting rays and sharks over
to the side of the boat for Gray so see.

Our guide, Lil Alfonse, pointing out some coral.
He was seriously the best guide we have ever had on a snorkel
excursion.

Our other guide, Rex, holding two nurse sharks.

Sam holding a nurse shark

Our puddle jumper taking us back to Belize City

Gray watching as we flew over the islands.