Weeks 29 & 30

What weeks? 29th & 30th
Total weight gain: 28 lbs
Baby Growth: From15 inches long and a 2 1/2 pounds to 15.7 inches long and weighs almost 3 pounds.
Maternity clothes?: I truly truly love my yoga pants. They aren’t maternity, but they are OH SO COMFY! 
Stretch marks?: Nope!
Sleep?: Just waking up about 2-3 times a night to pee.
Best moment this month?: Sitting in the glider in my daughter’s pink room. Realizing that I will have a baby girl here very soon.
Movement?: Crazy amounts!
Food cravings?: Anything sweet. Anything.
Labor signs?: Absolutely NOT!
Belly button in or out?: Flat, but poking out on top.
What I miss: Clothes that fits. 
What I'm looking forward to: Doing ALL of the pink laundry! 
Monthly Wisdom: Spend LOTS of quality time with your family now…..it may be far and few between soon.
Milestone: Passed my glucose test!

Snow Day

For those that are in Seattle, you know how our lovely city FREAKS out when it snow hits our city. We all jokingly call it “Snowmaggedon”.  So it snowed all night, and through the morning and got a whopping 2 inches of snow. The world stopped and EVERYTHING was cancelled.  The best part?  Jackson got to have his first Snow Day.  The last 2 times it snowed here, Jackson had been too sick to venture out and enjoy it. But not today.

At first he couldn’t really grasp why he was all bundled up – he hated being confined & layered. But then the snow hit his fingertips and he really HATED it. I told him that snow is cold, and that he must wear his gloves.  I wiped his snot, put on the gloves and he was on his way.  He didn’t seem to love it, but didn’t seem to hate it. He just enjoys being outside, walking around. 

After about an hour, he was pooped…..and it was snack time.  I think his little piggies were cold too.

Maybe next year he’ll make it a little longer…..

 

Jackson’s 18 month stats

With our insurance changing over and once again changing pediatricians (we went back to Jackson’s original pedi – who we absolutely adore), we were late in getting his 18 month appointment scheduled.

It ended up working out as Jackson has been SUPER sick over the last month, as well as his nap schedule and eating habits changing dramatically – so we had lots of questions lined up for Dr. Ginsberg.

Here are Jackson’s stats for 18 months:

Weight: 28lbs, 8oz. (75th percentile)
Height: 35 inches  (over 100th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 inches (50th percentile)

Although he’s had what Dr. Ginsberg calls “The Walking Winter” (first winter your kid is walking is the worst for illness). He is right on track with all of his skills, talking, physical abilities, etc.). She was impressed he talks so clearly and knows so many letters.  Go Jackson!

Monthly Check-in 25-28 weeks

25 weeks                                          26 weeks

27 weeks                                         28 weeks

What weeks? 25th – 28th
Total weight gain: 25 lbs
Baby Growth: From  about 13.5 inches and a pound and a half to 14.8 inches and two and a quarter pounds.
Maternity clothes?: Thank GOD I am no longer working full-time, ALL of my maternity work pants are too tight!  I am now in maternity jeans and yoga pants along with ALL maternity shirts. 
Stretch marks?: Nope!
Sleep?: It’s begun, the uncomfortable feeling of my belly being too big and there is no room in our bed for the body pillow. I’m hoping Shane won’t have to move to the air mattress like he did at this time during my last pregnancy :(
Best moment this month?: Being first in line to meet our friends’ Nick and Serah’s new baby, Ronan (at one hour old). It really hit home that our little girl will be here before we know it.
Movement?: No need to do kick counts with this little gymnast. She moves all day long.
Food cravings?: Milk chocolate covered almonds. Thank you Costco!
Labor signs?: Absolutely NOT!
Belly button in or out?: Flat, but poking out on top.
What I miss: Steak and red wine.
What I'm looking forward to: Painting, building, and putting together Malia’s nursery. Our “big plan” this weekend is to get it at least started – if it were up to me, I’d have it finished, but we are starting with small goals.
Monthly Wisdom: Make sure to eat lots of fiber in your diet.
Milestone: Appointments are now in 2 week intervals, I took my glucose test today and got my rhogam shot. We are in the homestretch.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day has never been a big “holiday” at the Makanani house.  Flowers die and God knows I don’t need anymore chocolate to add to my diet.  A little background (and funny stories) are the stories of mine and Shane’s Valentine’s Day adventures. I won’t share the long version, but rather let you decide as to why Valentine’s Day is a big fat FAIL in our lives:

V-Day 2006: I sent Shane flowers at work, he thought I was crazy and didn’t even call to say thank you. To his defense, I was stalking him and thought it would be a romantic gesture = FAIL!

V-Day 2007: Shane sent me flowers while at work via “Proflowers.com”. He saw the picture on the website and thought they were beautiful. Little did he know (or read the fine print) the flowers arrive IN A BOX with the vase enclosed in the box for the recipient to put together his/herself. That wasn’t what was disappointing though….the box ‘o flowers were DOA. That’s right, they were DEAD ON ARRIVAL = FAIL!

V-Day 2008: Since flowers did us wrong the last 2 years we amicably decided NOT to get each other flowers, but rather go out to a nice dinner. Since I am normally the one that plans dinners out, I asked that Shane take this one on. No problem he said – so I didn’t hassle him one bit. 5pm on Valentine’s Day we get in the car. I ask, “So, where are our reservations?” He says, “We are going to go wherever the night takes us.” I tried REALLY hard not to overreact, but after 2.5 hours of driving around and going into EVERY restaurant North of Seattle, we were pretty much told there would be a 2 hour wait at every restaurant. We came home with Pizza Hut= FAIL!

V-Day 2009: Hoping Shane had learned his lesson from the PREVIOUS Valentine’s Day I thought I’d give him a chance to redeem himself. In a nutshell, what happened in 2008, happened in 2009. So we ordered pizza. Again. We decided from here on out, Valentine’s Day will be like any other NORMAL day. We will forgo flowers, chocolate and fancy dinners and just do what works for us – order pizza and stay home. FAIL turned SUCCESS!

2010 was a success and so will 2011. 

Today, Jackson and I drove down to Shane’s work and had lunch with him – nothing fancy, just burgers and fries. Shane was having kind of a rough day, so he text me after we left saying that us coming down made his day (SUCCESS!). On the way home we stopped at Trophy Cupcakes and picked up some yummy treats (mostly for me & Malia). Shane will be home in an hour or so and the plan is to order pizza….maybe from Papa John’s, or maybe we will take it up a notch this year and get our favorite, Sparta’s. 

No matter what Valentine’s Day has been easy and comfortable and just the way we like it. We love each other 365 days a year and today is no different. I am more in love with my husband today than ever and I know I will love him even more tomorrow. We have created a son that we both absolutely cherish and adore and we have a daughter that we haven’t even met yet and love her more than words can describe. Life is good.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

My son knows his stuff

I’m not a mom that brags about my kid. Of course I think he’s cute, smart, hitting all of his milestones on time and above average on everything – but do I shout it from the rooftops….no. And I never will.  I am a proud mama, but I can’t handle it when moms go on and on about how their children are smarter than others or that they are the cutest kids they know.  I knew an adult like this growing up, and I still remember how it made me feel at 7 years old. Maybe it was my poor self-esteem back then, but I told myself that I would never be a mom like that.

However, I am really proud of how it seems like in just a few short weeks Jackson has really picked up on his talking and his ability to point out things he knows.  This isn’t in comparison to anyone else, it’s just something that Shane and I were discussing the other night at dinner. It was like overnight Jackson became a sponge, learning every picture, letter, family member, cartoon character, etc.

On Friday, I was home sick with a really bad cold. I was in bed most of the day, but I really wanted to keep Jackson home with me – I missed him.  At one point I was switching out some laundry and noticed Jackson wasn’t next to me…….I went into his bedroom to find this:

I know he was really concentrating, because he had the lips out.  That’s his concentration face right there – I love it.  I just can’t help but want to kiss those lips when he is so focus.  Most the time he pushes me away because he is really into whatever he is reading/doing – so this time I didn’t kiss him, I just let him read all of his books in his glider.

Last day of FULL-TIME work!

As I posted in previous posts - I will no longer be working FULL-TIME as of February 3rd....TODAY!

I am very excited that today is my last day for a number of reasons. The first being that I miss my son terribly. Jackson goes to bed now between 630-7pm. I don't get off of work until 4:30 with a 45 minute commute, then add cooking and eating dinner into the mix and next thing you know, it's 6pm - and I only get 30 minutes a day with him. Which makes it hard for me to want to do anything else (for me) besides spend any time I get with him. Secondly, I have very much NOT enjoyed working for my current boss. He has unrealistic expectations for me and needs someone full time (I currently work part-time for him, part-time for his mom). Needless to say, the last 4 months have been miserable - and I am so glad that he has found someone that will take my place and do more than I could do for him. Lastly, for sticking around the last few months while they found a replacement - I get a nice little severance package. Nothing to write home about - but it allows us to pay off MORE debt! We are getting closer and closer to our goal of having ALL of our debt paid off!

So what do I do from here? Well, the next 3 months I will still be working 2 times a week. But the other 3 days will be dedicated to play dates, working out, cooking yummy meals, Little Gym, reading/music classes, setting up Malia's nursery - the list goes on and on. I plan to use my days off to constructively for me and my family - not just sit around and veg out.

I have to say, such a HUGE shout out to my amazingly supportive husband, Shane. Without his support, love, understanding and positive attitude - I would have never been able to do what I am doing right now and what I have planned for our immediate future. He understands how badly I want to be home with our children and will do anything to make it possible. I love you so much Shane - thank you, you have no idea how much this precious time means to me. You will see a different mommy & wife over the next few months.....the smile WILL be back ;)