I want more llamas!

I feel like I need to dedicate a post to the shit my kid says, as that is usually the reason for having #2…. If we didn’t find this one so amusing, why would we bother with another?

Last week was rough as my babysitter was out of town, so my son had to stay at home with me all day while I worked. I felt like an awful parent for sticking him in front of the ol’ tube all day long, but it was the only way that I could really be productive. For awhile I was sitting by him on the couch and he was quietly playing with something on the floor, which should have been my first indication that something wasn’t right. All of a sudden he exclaims, “Look Mommy! I can tie your headset in a knot!” Excellent buddy. Excellent.

Today while we were on our way to the local pool, my son was pretty excited, and consequently, he was behaving very well. I turned to him and said, “Buddy, why are you such a good boy?” and he says to me, “Because I like cookies.” I think that’s fair.

When we got home from the pool and I was working on dinner, my son WAS NOT being a good boy and my husband put him in timeout. He was sitting there pouting and when I walked by he said, “Llama Llama Mad at Mama.” Now, if you read to your kid as much as I do, you will understand why this was a naughty, yet brilliant comment.

Finally…. bedtime. As much as I adore my son, I must admit that I am usually worn out by the time sun goes down and I’m ready for him to go to sleep. He grabbed a super hero book and handed it to his daddy, and we all laid down to read together. Somehow during this story, the topic of outer space came up (maybe something about the Green Lantern) and my son asked if there are storms in space. My husband proceeded to explain to him how geomagnetic storms work, and my son was completely into it. I couldn’t deal with all the brainy-ness in that room, so I left them to it.

Ah, it is days like this that remind me how cool kids are (especially the kind that my hubby and I produce!) and I just can’t wait for #2 to grace us with his or her presence. All that remains is getting pregnant!

Boy or girl: Does it really matter?

There are so many people around me that are getting pregnant right now, and of course, I’m dying because I just want to be one of them! The big question for pregnant women seems to be what’s the baby’s sex? When my husband and I were pregnant with our first, we wanted to know right away so we could buy clothes and plan the nursery according to our baby’s sex. We had names picked the week before our sonogram appointment so the moment that we knew what we where having, we would know WHO we were having. We saved up a little bit of cash so once we found out we were having a little boy, we made a day of it. My husband and I went to our sonogram, out to lunch, bought a few outfits, and did our entire registry all that same afternoon. It was a great way to have our own little mini celebration.

When I found out the sex of our baby, I was in shock (for no particular reason) but I wasn’t upset. We were both completely elated, and I know that we would have felt that way if we had had a little girl as well. As our family continues to grow, we would like to have at least one of each sex so we can experience all the great things that come with raising boys and girls, but if I end up with three little boys, I will still be the happiest momma in the world.

Alot of people have preferences when it comes to the sex of their babies. Do you?

Thinking about baby #2

Ahhh Sunday. We had a great weekend and I am actually looking forward to starting the whole “getting pregnant” thing over again. (Ovulation this Friday, woo hoo!) As excited as I am, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have reservations about baby #2. Our first pregnancy wasn’t planned, so although we wanted our baby a million times over, there was no real thought put into becoming a parent BEFORE the pregnancy. This time, we have plenty of time to think about it.

I have heard from somewhere (it is probably something that “they” say) that the hardest transition when having babies is from having one to having two. The first time around you were unexperienced, unprepared, and completely unsure. For #2, however, you have to manage all of an infant’s needs while still meeting all of the needs of your older child. Challenge much? Infants are tiresome to begin with but then you need to worry about paying the proper amount of attention to a child that has been your world for X amount of time up until now. Did I mention that I TOTALLY want another one?

So this weekend, hubby and I had our first challenge; our friends went away for the day and needed someone to take their dog. Their big dog. No sweat, right? Ha.

My little one was THRILLED, but I already wanted to kill the dogs after the first hour of them chasing one another throughout my small apartment. We decided to take them for a walk to get some energy out, which of course was a lovely choice fora 105 degree afternoon. They did beautifully at the dog park and behaved quite well while we took our son to the playground. Things were going well at this point and we felt quite optimistic.

We returned home for lunch and a nap, and when I say nap, I include my husband and I because we were beat. We separated the dogs because they were wrestling on top of us in the bed. You’d think that the heat would have worn them down a bit, right? Nope. Then, my son couldn’t fall asleep so he came in to get the dogs. For the next two hours the two large dogs and the child ran rampant around the house. It was great fun. Finally, it was time for dinner. After we ate we headed back out for another walk.

This almost did the trick. The second walk wore our son out and he went straight to bed. The dogs ALMOST stayed calm enough to let us watch a movie together at the end of the night. When our friends returned to get their puppy at midnight, we were pretty wiped–but still kind of sad to see her go. As stressful as the day had been, we had fun together, and I think the same will be true about another baby. It is going to be crazy stressful, tiring, and overwhelming, but at the end of the day, our family is going to be so much better with the addition, and really, we can’t wait!

Making my own exercise

Believe it or not, I do enjoy exercising. I’m starting to get into this running thing, and I have a passion for yoga. My biggest problem is finding the time! Now that my husband and I are trying for baby #2, I feel like I need to MAKE time for exercise because it’s what’s best for me and my new baby during this impending pregnancy.

We don’t have a television (crazy right?) so I pulled out the good ol’ laptop and loaded up Hulu. I’m a big fan of Vinyasa yoga so I searched for a video of that. I found this 30 minute video that seemed perfect for me. Thirty minutes isn’t that long, right?

Ya right. The dog kept licking my face and biting my nose. I’m not sure what I was doing that was so bad, but she was severely concerned for my safety. At one point, I’m practically upside down and the lady with the calm, soothing voice is telling me to surrender my thoughts. It is at this exact moment that my son starts yelling from the bathroom, “MOMMMMY!! Can you come wipe my bum?”

Seriously? I did make it through the entire video, but it wasn’t as relaxing and fulfilling as I had hoped. At this point, I decided to get my son involved so I could get SOMETHING done. It worked out pretty well.

Now I know there is at least ONE way to exercise with a three-year-old. I think tomorrow I might get up at the crack of dawn so I can get a little yoga in before the boy gets up and before the dog starts functioning. Who knows, I might enjoy getting up with the sun.

Pregnancy Tools

The most stressful part of trying to get pregnant is the wait. Because my first pregnancy was a “happy surprise”, I didn’t know “how” to get pregnant this time. Couples only have a 20% chance at getting pregnant each month, so it’s important to understand your body and your cycle to optimize your chances.

Personally, I LOVE Baby Center. It has great tools like your pregnancy week by week which tells you exactly what is happening in your body at any given week of pregnancy. It also explains how your child is developing and includes pictures, which is awesome. I also love their easy to use ovulation calculator and due date calculator. I hadn’t actually thought about when I was ovulating before (I had no reason to) so now that I am aware of it, we can make a conscious effort to try for baby during the best time.

One thing that I couldn’t find on Baby Center was something to tell me when I could take a pregnancy test. I think everyone who is trying to get pregnant is dying to see those two little pink lines, so not knowing when you can get a positive result is just plain torture. I searched Google and found a pregnancy calendar on JustMommies.com. Most sites will tell you that you ovulate this many days after your period starts, and implantation occurs at this many days, and you can find out if you are pregnant this many days after implantation. WTF? I’m struggling to remember what the first day of my last period was and you want me to calculate all of this? There is absolutely no way.

Thankfully, Just Mommies spells it out for you. If I did get pregnant during this cycle, my due date would be January 18, 2014. All I had to do was plug in this information and Just Mommies generated a calendar for my entire pregnancy which included the period of time that I should have been ovulating, when my baby should have implanted, and a general idea of when I could get a positive pregnancy test if I did conceive. You can even print out your personalized calendar so you can track the little milestones of your pregnancy at home. Even though each woman is different and none of this is exact, it makes me feel better to have a date–and it also makes my husband feel better that I am not wasting money by taking a new pregnancy test every couple of days.

If I find out that I am pregnant, I will probably switch back to Baby Center to read all about my baby’s development from week to week, but Just Mommies offered me something extremely valuable at this tense point–a little piece of mind.

I might have a phantom pregnancy

My husband convinced me to start trying for a baby a month earlier than I had wanted to. Worst comes to worst, I’ll have a January baby instead of a February baby. Worse things have happened. The problem now (that we didn’t have in our first pregnancy because it was unplanned) is that my OCD is out of control. I’m a healthy 25-year-old woman. There is no reason that I should have a hard time getting pregnant. That doesn’t mean, however, that we will get pregnant on the first try. That doesn’t mean that I don’t look up my “symptoms” every day while I sit in bed feeling nauseous.

I am due to get my period on Saturday. I have already taken two “early detection” pregnancy tests with negative results, which is not shocking because I took them WAY to early. I sincerely hope that we are pregnant now, because I may make myself go insane if I have to guess about this for another month. I’m also going to feel very silly for my boobs hurting and for feeling nauseous. You know that thing when people lose a limb, but they can still feel it? I’m worried that I’m not pregnant yet, but I’m having “symptoms” because I want to be.

What the hell am I going to do since we decided not to find out the sex of the baby? Stay tuned for the madness.

Life Just Happened.

Life just happened. My guy and I got engaged after 6 months, unknowingly got pregnant in 7, found out at month 8 while we were planning our wedding, and we got married in month 9 of our relationship. Crazy right? Totally. Do I regret any of it? Not a single thing.

Our beautiful, first-born son was born in October of 2009. He has been an angel, a devil, a thinker, a talker, and a champion, but most of all, he has always been my heart. My husband and I planned on expanding our family long ago–we wanted our children to be 2 1/2 to 3 years apart–but life just happened. Our little guy is no longer little, he is an active, vivacious 3 1/2 year old. If we were pregnant at this very moment, our first two children would be about 4 1/2 years apart.

It’s not what we wanted, but it is what it is. When we got pregnant, my husband and I were both 21. I had JUST graduated from college a few months earlier, and I hadn’t secured a job yet. My husband put off finishing his degree to work two jobs to support us. By the time our son arrived, money was very, very tight. Even the shifts that I was working at a local restaurant weren’t enough. When our son was 7 months old, we moved away to live with family in another state. That didn’t help us get our shit together either. Every time we got something paid off, some other bill reared its ugly head.

After 2 or 3 months at our new arrangement, my husband expressed interest in the Air Force. Although I had never heard him talk about it before, he said that it was a dream of his while he was still in high school. I was on board right away. The family that we were living with HEARTILY disapproved to say the least. We put it off to see if we could make things work.

A year later, we were still no closer to living on our own. Even though I obtained a second degree, I was still no closer to getting a 9 to 5, and we had even more college debt. My husband was thriving as a restaurant manager, but the late nights and long hours were turning me sour. We saved up our courage and decided to do what we didn’t have the internal fortitude to do the year before–move away and join the Air Force.

We moved into my mom’s spare bedroom 12 hours away because we couldn’t afford to live on our own. We waited for a year and a half for everything to go through, and in December of 2012, my husband left for basic. Those two months were quite possibly the most difficult of my life, but I couldn’t break down, because my little boy was looking to me for reassurance that everything was going to be ok. And it was.

Now, we are all back under the same roof, and the military life suits us quite well so far. We will take deployments as they come, one day at a time. So now, nothing is holding us back. It’s time to make a baby. This is my chronicle of a second time momma managing home, work, military life, and a toddler. Here we go.