Pumpkin Patch & Ahma/Ahpa visit

We went out in to the fields to pick our pumpkins this year at a local farm. They had a petting zoo, hay ride, carmel apples (mmmmm), jumping castles (still Nev's fav), and we left with fresh picked pumpkins, some funny gourds and a pie pumpkin that I have already baked and froze, ready to use in our Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie. We arrived early to avoid long lines and crowds and it truly was perfect, warm in temperature, but a perfect pumpkin day otherwise. This is by far my favorite time of the year as days grow shorter, allowing time for hibernation, and nights offer cool relief. Nevi just loves looking at the colors on the trees, picking up different leaves that attract her attention and hearing the crunching under our feet as we walk. It's a sensory explosion, especially for a curious 2 year old!

We also had a great visit from Ahma and Ahpa who war able to have a night away with Nevi in the mountains. They snatched up Nevi and took her to Georgetown for a real coal engine train ride. Though it snowed and Ahma and Nev piked up a flu bug while there, it was an awesome trip for all of them. And I thoroughly enjoyed a night to hang with Robb and work on Nev's new big girl room. The room is almost complete (will have pix soon) and I hope the transition goes smoothly - as of now Nev has no desire to make the leap into the new surroundings but we do enjoy reading books there each night as part of our bedtime routine.

'Little Guy' Pregnancy Journal Blog

I've been calling him 'Little Guy' lately. We've picked out a name finally that we both REALLY like but of course want to meet him first before making his name official. We'll bring the list of potential names with us to the hospital, just in case the name we like most doesn't fit. I'm 23 weeks pregnant - not totally sure how to calculate this into months but probably around 5 1/2 months along. He is really making his presence known in my belly with larger movements, morphing my belly with each readjustment or movement. I love feeling him alive and thriving and find myself talking to him a lot, mostly telling him to 'hang in there' on physically demanding days. I am doing things in this pregnancy that I never would have dreamed doing when pregnant with Nevi, things like picking up 30 pound toddlers, eating peanut m&ms, using nonorganic cleaners to clean the bathroom, not sleeping for three nights straight due to a sick toddler and I am not exercising as much as I did with Nevi, per say, but I am definitely on my feet more and find that I have very little time to just sit and bond with him like I did when I was carrying Nevi. But to be to totally frank, I feel like I am able to enjoy this pregnancy much more than the last. It feels like a totally different experience, in fact. There are times, even as of late, that I wake up in the morning forgetting I'm even pregnant at all because I have so few negative side affects. No indigestion or gas pains to speak of. No back aches yet. No breast tenderness. Only a few weeks (a while back) of insomnia but now I sleep like a champ (when Nevi lets me). Much less anxiety about my body changing or the daily exposures. All in all, it feels like I am carrying this little one differently than I did with Nev. I feel like she sat inside me more, smooching my internal organs. This little baby seems to be sitting outside me more, reeking less havoc on my digestion tract and sticking out a bit more. Still, I get tired easily, just as I did with Nevi and I'm nesting like crazy lately, a similar experience. It's really fun sharing this pregnancy with Nevi and watching her get excited about being a big sister. There has been one experience to date that I definitely NEVER had with Nev and it was very recent. I was exercising at the Y....Ahma and Ahpa were in town with Nev.....and I had a growing discomfort that quickly turned into straight up pain....but it wasn't pregnancy pain like contractions or anything low in my belly.....it was a pain up high in my diaphragm that severely affected my breathing and felt like lightening from the top of my belly through my breasts, lungs and even to the roof of my mouth. I phoned Robb for help. He picked me up from the Y and took me to Urgent Care because I couldn't hardly talk or breath or stand or sit, etc. Once I got there, I squatted on the floor and Robb put his hands to my belly and back. Like an uncorking or untwisting I felt immediate relief from the surging pain and as quickly as it came on, it was gone. By the time the doctor actually saw me, I was completely normal again. He said he had no idea what happened but the nurse had a little more insight. She thought it sounded like nerve pain and wondered if the baby may have kicked a nerve sending lightening all the way up my respiratory system. Because the pain was gone, there were no tests to run but they checked on baby and he was totally fine, a real trooper. Strangest experience of my life. Hope that never happens again. Next to labor, that was the most pain I can ever remember. To conclude, I just wanted to blog in order to remember how wonderful I feel, how unique this experience is and how excited I am about meeting the newest love that feels so resonant inside me. I'm starting to wondering if he'll look like Nev or Robb or even my dad.....