Poor Mommy!

As you can probably guess, being 32 weeks along, I've gotten pretty... uh... big.


The other night, Stephen, Emily and I went out for a bite to eat. After dinner, Stephen scooped Emily up and as they were heading for the door, Em turned around just in time to see me struggling to get out from between two tables.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "Mommy STUCK!!!"

Boy, was I ever. (That seems to happen to me a lot lately. I'm constantly unaware of my size and get into those sorts of predicaments! My belly loves to get in the way. ;-)


She then turned to Stephen and said, "Poor Mommy!"

:-)

Emmyisms

- "gabrella" is Em-speak for umbrella.
- "Critta Ramen" or "Ritta Ramen" is Em-speak for Christopher Robin.
- On our flight home from Boston a month ago, when the plane lifted-off, she threw her arms in the air and shouted, "BLAST-OFF!!!"
She's a huge "Little Einsteins" fan. Can ya tell? ;-)


It's been raining cats and dogs here all day today (which has been wonderful, not only because I adore the rain, but also because we so desperately need it here in SoCal). Em got to use the cute little pink "gabrella" Sister bought for her in Massachusetts.

Call us nuts, but we just got home from an evening at SeaWorld. We bought year-round passes ("Passports") a few months ago (when our Zoo/WAP passes expired), and tonight the park was open after-hours for Passport members. It was nice, because for the most part we had the place to ourselves, and we got to see a neat Christmas version of The Shamu Show. Em LOVED it. She squealed with glee every time Shamu leaped out of the water. When the show was about to end, we told her it was time for Shamu to go "nigh-night". She exclaimed, "No! Shamu NO nigh-night!!" She wanted to continue to watch him perform his antics. It was terribly cute.

Unfortunately, due to the rain, the park closed an hour and a half earlier than originally planned. We missed out on seeing our usual favorites (the sharks and penguins). Oh, well. It's an excuse to go back soon. :-)

After SeaWorld, we picked up a half-order of carne asada fries to share from Santana's. Yum! (Santana's was one of our "regulars" when we were in college.) After we went through the drive-thru, we drove through USD to take a look. (We usually do that when we're in the area, just for old time's sake. I'm also in love with the place.) Can I just say, I have the prettiest alma mater in the world?! It was gorgeous when I was a student there, and it just keeps getting more and more beautiful. And The Immaculata -- wow. Stephen and I were lucky to be married there. It's simply breathtaking.

In pregnancy news, not much to report -- everything looks great. (No news is good news, right?) I went in for my monthly check-up today, and my OB said I have the blood pressure of a teenager. ;-) I was glad about that one! I thankfully haven't gained any weight (I actually lost 10 pounds when I was pregnant with Em), and I feel good. I still get tired more easily than I did with Emily, and now and then I ache a little more, but I really can't complain. Both these babies have been so good to me! A few weeks ago, I finally got to the point of feeling him/her kick every single day. I love that. That's definitely my favorite part of pregnancy. :-) My doctor now wants to see me every three weeks instead of every four. Two weeks from now, I'm supposed to take the glucose test to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. Let's hope I don't! That would be no fun at all.

Off to bed now. We have gymnastics in the morning (only two classes left). I hope it continues to rain!

Baby Lawless

Gee, I realized I never officially announced that we're expecting Baby Lawless #2! We of course alluded to the fact here, but I believe a formal announcement is in order.

So here goes...

We're pregnant!!!

I am currently 17 weeks along; Baby Lawless #2 is due the first week of March, 2008. Emily will be about three years and two months older than her baby brother or sister.




And now for a little photo essay of our pregnancy journeys...

[Click on images to enlarge.]



This was when we found out Baby Lawless #1 (also known as Emily Grace) was on her way. This picture was taken May 8, 2004, which was the day before Mother's Day. I can't imagine a better gift!





I love this picture of the positive digital home pregnancy test. This was from my pregnancy with Em. We unfortunately weren't able to get a picture of the positive digital test from this current pregnancy (the darn screen went blank before we even got the chance), so we'll just let this image represent both. :-)





This picture was taken July 4, 2007, which was a couple weeks after we found out Baby Lawless #2 is on the way. Again, we weren't able to get pictures on The Day (which was June 25, 2007 -- already three months ago, wow!), so this will have to do. Personally, I think it's a pretty good "fake". ;-)





Here are the first printed images we have of Baby Lawless #1 (at 6 weeks gestation). At our first prenatal appointment, due to a mix-up in dates, we were told I would probably miscarry her. I was devastated. This ultrasound was taken at my second appointment, about a week later. Here she was, trying to tell Mommy she was there and wasn't going anywhere!! (By this time, I had had bloodwork done and the doctor said that the dates/measurements indicated by the ultrasound and my levels all matched up. We breathed a huge sigh of relief. :-)




Here she was again, this time at 10 weeks gestation. What a difference four weeks made!





And now at 13 weeks. This one's kind of hard to make out. The bottom portion of the image is better, but still tough. One can definitely make out a difference between this and the last one, though!





These are the pictures from Emily's "Level II" (detailed) ultrasound at 19 weeks. This is when they check the baby's spine and organs to make sure everything looks okay. Usually the parents can find out the sex of the baby, but Em wasn't cooperating this particular day. (I guess the fact that we couldn't see "anything" should've been a pretty good clue. ;-) We didn't find out we were having a girl until over a month later, on September 30, 2004.








And now for Baby Lawless #2. Here he/she was at 9 weeks gestation*. I don't know if it's the quality of the image, but to me, this baby looks much more "baby-like" than Emily did at 10 weeks! I'm sure it probably has to do with the angle, too. Em's 10-week picture was taken from the side; this baby's 9-week picture's taken head-on. Their shapes just look very different to me. Emily still looked like a lima bean, whereas this child looked more like a very tiny baby. And to think, this was seven weeks ago. Imagine how different he/she looks now!



* I unfortunately misplaced Baby Lawless #2's first ultrasound picture, taken at 6 weeks (when we first saw the heartbeat!). I'm pretty ticked about that. I'm sure I'll find it around here one of these days, and when I do, I'll scan it and put it up. I was just really hoping to compare BL #1 and BL #2's pictures taken at around the same age! Oh, well.


I have a routine appointment with my OB tomorrow. I don't know if we'll have an ultrasound done (I doubt it), but that's when we'll schedule "The Big One" (the Level II). I can't WAIT to find out the sex of this baby. For some reason, I'm really eager to know what it is. I don't remember being so impatient when I was pregnant with Em, but I probably was. Memory's a funny thing that way. Anyway, I hope to be able to find out if Em's going to have a baby brother or a baby sister within the next couple weeks, before we go to Boston. Otherwise we'll have to wait another month or so (which would kill me! ;-). Once we do find out the sex, I was thinking of posting the ultrasound pictures here, but certain people (who shall remain nameless) don't want to know, so I guess I'll have to refrain. Maybe I'll just put them up on Flickr and mark them private.(?)


So there they are -- Baby Lawless #1 and Baby Lawless #2. This is such an amazing journey. (More on the pregnancy another time, perhaps. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get some belly shots up, too! Okay, yeah right. Let's get real.) It'll be so interesting and so much fun to see how these two children of ours are alike and unalike. Now this I do remember: when I was pregnant with Em, I was so eager to see her face, to see what she looked like. I don't feel quite that same way with this one, although I am of course looking forward to it. I'll be so neat to see how/if the siblings resemble each other. Emily looks so much like me now, it's uncanny. Maybe #2 will look more like his/her daddy. :-)


By the way, today marks two years since I began this blog! (It began with a very insignificant post, but hey, it still counts.) I know I don't post often, and that's something I always hope to change (maybe one of these days I actually will), but I love this journal and am so glad I started it. My only wish is that more people would check in, and if they actually do, I wish they'd leave comments. Thank you to those of you who do check in (and make your presence known!). It makes me feel good to know you're interested.


And a Happy 2nd Blogiversary to me!

Happy 51st Anniversary!

Sorry we're late, but Emily wanted to wish her Grandma and Granddad a very happy anniversary. Please watch this video in its entirety! (It's only two-and-a-half minutes and it's majorly cute, I promise. ;-)