2nd trimester, baby #2!!

here i am at 26 weeks. i can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is going compared to the first! i am so grateful to prim for keeping me so preoccupied and happy.

(16 weeks)

i am still feeling really good. my stomach is starting to get pretty cramped and it's not comfortable to bend over. i can squat and pick stuff up, but bending over puts weird pressure on my stomach and bladder. i think this started happening earlier than it did with my first. i keep telling jon "i can't believe i _____ already!" and he says "a.j., i don't think you realize how far along you are." i guess he is probably right. everything seems to be happening earlier, but i think it is just because it was this time last year that it was happening so it doesn't seem like enough time has passed, if that makes sense. i got pregnant so quickly that i don't remember what normal is. hard to explain.

(18.5 weeks)

the summer went by way too fast. we had tons of plans to swim all the time, but that just didn't happen. i definitely started wearing maternity clothes earlier than i did last pregnancy. at the beginning of the second trimester i started feeling fat and not cute yet. my small clothes didn't fit and my maternity stuff didn't fit right either. at 12 weeks i went to the temple store without prim. i was wearing a maternity shirt with my skirt and the lady at the register congratulated me and asked how far along i was. i thought that was pretty bold of her, but figure it was probably obvious because of the scrunching on my maternity shirt. she's the only one who congratulated me for a long time and i think it's because Prim wasn't there. when i was pregnant with her, people were commenting on it ALL the time from when i just barely started to show. now people are afraid to say anything when they see my belly and see my little baby. they aren't sure if i'm still trying to work off my baby weight! 

(20 weeks)

my belly really popped while amanda was here at the end of july/beginning of august. i said "look at my belly!" and she said "yeah, that was not there when i got here" and she was only here for a total of 5 days. now that i've popped and its increasingly obvious that i'm pregnant, people have started to congratulate us and prim. i had expected people to say weird things about having a baby so soon and babies so close in age, but i haven't been offended or surprised by anything that's been said so far! 

(23 weeks)

i worked out pretty consistently until around 22 weeks when our jogging stroller got a flat tire. i was walking at least 3 or 4 times a week and then doing push ups and other arm work outs. since the tire popped i've had a really hard time doing cardio. i only go when jon comes with me because her normal stroller is really heavy and hard to push on our drive way. that sounds super lame, but you have no idea how long and bumpy/hilly our driveway is. it takes about 10 minutes to get from the house to the main road and by the time i get there i already want to turn around, haha. i'm dedicated to getting back into walking and doing easy work outs though, hoping it'll help get back to my normal size after teeny gets here. 

(24.5 weeks)

mid august we went on a gap shopping spree (thanks to emma for the coupons!) for me and prim. i desperately needed post baby clothes and don't want to have to deal with it when i have two babies, no time and no money-ha. we got clothes for prim for her to grow into next year and even got one item for teeny. a little white fuzzy snowsuit that is to die for. we put prim in one her size and lost it. she looked so cute, but it wasn't practical with her crawling and starting to walk. teeny is going to look SO cute in it! this is so far the only thing we have bought specifically for him/her!!

(25 weeks)
while lizzie was in town we got to have our big ultrasound! our doctor prefers to do them as late as possible (we are never in a hurry since we don't find out the gender) so that she can do the anatomy scan when the baby is pretty big and she can see it clearly. we went on tuesday september 1st and it was the cutest thing in the world. it was so much better than prim's ultrasound (i think the doctor was rushed with her). she let us just look at teeny moving on the screen. it's little hands were up by its face twitching and moving and he/she was opening and closing its mouth. at one point prim looked at the screen and giggled. for the most part it seems like she is oblivious, but there are little tiny moments like this where i think she knows more than we think she does. we could see that teeny has chubby little cheeks like prim did and it looks pretty bald so far! (as if we really know) it was really exciting and special that both lizzie and prim got to be there. jon and i are over the moon excited about this new baby coming into our lives. we have enjoyed prim so much from day one (okay maybe like day 14) and can't wait to experience it all again with prim in tow. we are all three so lucky.

waiting for the doctor. she'd always lean over lizzie's shoulder to look at her close up.

there he/she is!!!! i can't get over those eyes and that nose.

(26 weeks)

bring on trimester three!

private

i don't like it. but i'm about to go private. 

please leave your email address in the comments so i can add you to the list!

we made it!+moab!

our flights were relatively easy and Prim was well behaved as usual with just a few moments of fussing. my dad picked us up late friday night and we went straight to bed.

prim's first time eating avocado was fun to watch. she would make faces and spit it out, but she loved playing with it. i figured out that she like it mashed into her formula but not at all plain.

her first sink bath:)

grandpa got prim this little baseball shirt and she really rocks it, doesn't she? we figured it would be fitting for teeny as well, no matter the gender

for mother's day my dad hosted dinner at his house. we all ate and walked to the park afterwards to play.

mother's day was pretty sad, as usual. i think it would have helped if jon were in town, he was in moab still with alex. the positive side is now i get to be a mother myself and smother my baby with love. she is such a sweetheart and all the ups AND downs are worth it every day. that night i fed her and we laid in bed until she fell asleep in my arms, it was a good ending to the day. i love her so much.

how could i not?

monday was our 5th anniversary, so it was another sad day. we weren't together for the first time! when planning our trip, we did not think it would have been that big of a deal, but we are not spending another anniversary apart again if we can help it!

we went to little robbie's piano recital! he is doing so well in his lessons and did better than all the other kids (no joke, he had 0 mistakes). i'm so proud of him.

on wednesday, my dad and i met up with jon in moab!!!!!

the first thing we did was hike to a little water hole. the forecast now said that this would be the only sunny time we'd be there, so we figured we'd better swim while we could.

ugh our little nature baby.

can you believe her??

 

the next day we drove to zion! this was my dad's first time here.

lucky for us, it got real cold real quick.

seriously, can you tell we are cold? we went to the visitors center to watch the movie about how the arches are formed then drove around to look at the formations and hope that the weather would clear up a bit. highlight of the drive was a german couple asking us to take their photo. jon promptly said yes, counted "1-2-3!" and said goodbye, all in german. my little german-american.

my dad and i had never hiked to arches so we decided to do that. we kept getting stopped by asian people who would freak out over her and ask to take her picture. she had a hat on most of the time but when jon really wanted a reaction he'd take it off and reveal her bald head and they'd lose it.

it is a pretty easy and beautiful hike although it does get kind of sketchy at the very top, especially with a babe. now i feel like a true utahan having done this!

sad about her outfit. the whole time leading up to our trip it said moab was going to be really warm. i literally did not pack her (or i) winter clothes and it was so cold!! it was overcast the whole time we were there and was not warm. i just had to layer summer clothes on her and put her in the same hat/jacket the whole trip. and sockies on her hats as mittens. i've only been in texas for two years and it's already difficult for me to imagine it being anything but hot anywhere else. 

on our way down a couple of men from the middle east somewhere stopped us and took prim's picture and talked to her in a foreign language. one of them bent down to kiss her on the mouth and jon casually dipped away and said "noo...." so funny!

 

angel

filling our water bottles with water from the rocks

how sassy am i with my chocolate muffin?

this is at landscape arch. this was the last hike of the trip. we had planned to stay an additional day, but we left early. prim was up multiple times in the night and would cry for like 10-20 minutes at a time. my dad kept telling us that this was not a big deal, it's not like she fussed the whole night. it was just really out of the norm for her and with me, her and jon all sleeping in one bed-it got pretty old. during the day she was an angel and acted like everything was fine...silly baby. it was a fun trip anyway and we left just a day early so all was well.

we thought she was teething, but i think it was just a change in scenery that was making it difficult.

six month old baby!!!!!

and right before leaving moab, jon's wheel fell off! can you tell? the straight part is supposed to hit the middle of the tire and hold it in. here it has fallen out and the tire is just propped next to it. luckily this happened while we were on the main street in moab and there were multiple car shops within walking distance. jon got it fixed within like an hour and a half (crazy) and then we made our way back to salt lake!