Fact or Myth? Boy or Girl?

My sister is 11+ weeks pregnant and per her request I have some questions for my “Mommy” readers. You know you all love talking about your pregnancy and your child, so now is your chance! Please read the questions and leave a comment with your answers. C’mon….it will be fun! You don’t have to be a new mom to answer these questions. Even grandmas can participate!
1. What is the gender of your child? (or children)
2. If you took the intelligender test (and followed the “what not to do 48 hours before testing” directions:) was it correct?
3. What is your story with the fetal heartbeat? There are so many “myths” out there….140 (or is it 150?) and below means boy, above 140 means girl. However, it’s supposedly a fact that the heartbeat of all babies will slow down some as your pregnancy continues. Did yours start high and then get lower? Stay high? What’s your story….
4. Did you have morning sickness?
5. If you had morning sickness, did you take your prenatal vitamin several months before becoming pregnant or when you found out you were pregnant?
6. Go to www.babyman.net, click predictions, enter information, and since you already know the outcome, was it correct?
___________________________________
Here are my answers:
1. Boy and Boy
2. Jackson: Didn’t take the intelligender with;
Garrett: Correct!
3. I don’t remember exact numbers, however I do remember both boys started out in the “myth girl range.” It seems like it was only high the first time on the doppler, which the doppler doesn’t even detect a heart rate until around 12 weeks (give or take)….so probably sometime between 12-16 weeks it dropped. Garrett actually dropped really low, but still healthy and normal. Actually when he was born, I remember a nurse commenting that we may hear comments at a future dr. appointments about his heart rate being on the lower side, but still normal and not to be alarmed.
4. No actual morning sickness, although with Garrett there were times that I think I would have felt better if could have been sick.
5. With Jackson I took prenatal vitamins long before finding out I was pregnant and felt much better than I did with Garrett. With Garrett, I started taking prenatal vitamins when I found out I was pregnant. (Such a horrible Mommy I am!!! Remember, I still thought I could only get pregnant with help from medication. haha, little did we know!) My theory: I thought Garrett was a girl because I felt worse, but I think introducing the prenatal vitamins on top of the pregnancy hormones was the reason for me feeling worse.
6. Babyman.net - correct for Jackson and incorrect for Garrett.

Maybe a Crazy Dream?

Last night, when Aaron and I checked on Jackson and Garrett before going to bed, we discovered Garrett positioned in his bed like this -

I took his picture, repositioned him in his bed, went to check on Jackson,  decided to take his picture as well, noticed Rigley on the floor, who was annoyed with the flashing of the camera and was waiting for me to stop so he could go back to bed (he has been sleeping on Jackson’s decorative pillows that we put on the floor at night), so I took his picture as well just for the heck of it,and then we got in bed.  I tossed and turned as I was going down my checklist for Jackson’s birthday party in my mind.  Finally, I realized our house was a little warm, so I decided to get up and turn the air down. 

Our thermostat is near the hallway, so on my way to the thermostat I noticed something on Garrett’s floor.  His room is pretty dark at night, so I couldn’t make out what the mysterious object was.  I turned on the hallway light and discovered that the mysterious object was Garrett.  I guess it was a soft fall considering I never heard a thing and by the looks of things, I don’t think Garrett ever felt a thing.  He has been doing great and hasn’t been rolling out of his bed like we predicted he would, so maybe he just had a crazy dream last night….

“Happy Birthday, Aunt M.”

My sister has been asking Jackson to color a birthday picture for her. He keeps telling her “No, I am going to color one for Bam Bam because it is her birthday too!” (which it isn’t) Finally, he decided to draw a picture of Aunt M for her birthday! I scanned the drawing and I’m posting both of them “as is" and then posting the drawing labeled with some of his out loud thinking.

Referring to picture above:

• I know it may appear to be a unibrow, but he did say they were eyelashes.
• As far as two noses, I am guessing maybe they are nostrils?

Happy Birthday, Aunt M!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Garrett!

Garrett is one and a half today!  It’s crazy to think that when Jackson was the age Garrett is today, Jackson had already been a big brother for a week.  Thinking back to the day I delivered Garrett, Jackson seemed older than what Garrett is today.  The truth is, Jackson was actually a little less than 18 months when Garrett was born.  Everyday of the past year and a half have seemed fast paced and crazy, but looking back I would not have had it any other way.  It is like they live with their best friend.  There are times they fight, bite, and hit each other, but usually by the time I step in and try to prove my point, they have somehow already became best buds again and are teaming up against me.  I love how their relationship is today and hope it always remains this way.

Speaking of all of this, I have always thought that some things were less of a challenge for Garrett than they were for Jackson simply because Garrett has grown up watching Jackson.  This is a positive thing for the most part, but with all positive things there seems to be the negative. 

For example….

    

Jackson is the culprit.  I knew from the start that Garrett would one day realize how to climb out of his crib from watching Jackson.  I knew this would be the outcome, however I am guilty of not stopping Jackson from getting into Garrett’s crib because I loved watching them play together when Garrett woke up.  Although it was their moment when they would try to “win against Mommy” and run away from me so that I couldn’t grab them, I loved seeing them laugh together.  Jackson never climbed out of his own crib because he really never knew it was an option.  We converted his crib only to prepare for potty training.

However, with all this being said – Garrett is doing fabulous (knock on wood!) in his toddler bed!  Like I mentioned in post from the first night, he shut his door and cried for his baby.  Around midnight I heard him quietly saying my name.  I didn’t go in his room because I wanted to see what he would do.  He never got out of bed.  When I checked on the boys before I finally decided to go to bed, Garrett was laying in bed with his eyes wide opened.  I felt sad for him, like he lost the comfort of his crib.  I rubbed his back.  On Jackson’s first night in his toddler bed, I would have never mentioned “Come to Mommy and Daddy’s bed if you need anything.”  That would have only made a light bulb go off in Jackson’s head!  However, with Garrett being so much younger, I wanted him to know what to do instead of roaming the house.  I quietly said “If you need Mommy, come to Mommy and Daddy’s BED….come in Mommy and Daddy’ ROOM…..Mommy and Daddy’s bed, Mommy and Daddy’s room!”  I hoped that hearing those keywords over and over would eliminate roaming the house and maybe I would actually be able to sleep knowing that he knew what to do.  I felt like I had a newborn to worry about again! 

I didn’t hear from him all night!  At 7:30am I woke up, looked in his room (which I can see from our room) and he was still asleep.  Around 8:00, he started screaming.  He rolled out of his bed, but all was well. 

Sunday he took his nap in the car on the way home from my sister’s birthday party.  Sunday night he went to bed without any problems.  (This was with his Uncle Michael here and his Daddy yelling at the Cowboys…..)  We didn’t hear from him all night.  Monday morning he woke up, sat up in bed, I called for him to “come here!” and he just sat in his bed and said “Mama!  Mama! Mama!”  I guess he thinks the same rules apply for getting him out of bed.  Monday afternoon, went down for his nap without any problems!! 

As for today, everything is going well.  Hopefully it will continue, but I also know we will possibly hit the bump in the road at some point.

Jackson and Garrett both go to the doctor next Monday for Garrett’s 18 month and Jackson’s 3 year check up.  The good thing is, I don’t think they are due for shots!!  (Other than Garrett still needs a flu shot) I will keep you posted on their stats!   

Happy (Early) Birthday, Sis!

Sunday, we celebrated my sister’s birthday at Shenaniganz. (minus Aaron who got called into work) Here are some pictures from our fun day!

Such a professional bowler!

“O Jon, Jon, Wherefore art thou Jon?”

ha ha ha!! Only kidding!

Birthday Girl!

Garrett had enough!

He may be our 2nd, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Last night I put Garrett down to sleep in his crib. Like always, he went down wide awake and without a battle. Garrett is and always has been a great sleeper. This morning I woke up to Jackson at my bedside and the sound of Garrett coming from across the living room, who was standing up in his crib smiling saying “Mama! Mama!” He is always happy when he wakes up. He has always trusted that Aaron or I will come and get him. Sometimes when we think he is sleeping longer than normal, we will sneak into his room to check on him and find him peacefully laying in his crib wide awake.

Today I put Garrett down for his afternoon nap. He took his normal LONG nap which I am always extremely grateful for. Jackson and I were in the living room and we heard Garrett make a noise, so we knew he was awake. Jackson walked to Garrett’s closed door and asked me if it was okay to go in. I said yes. Jackson walked into Garrett’s room and in less than 2 seconds Garrett started screaming. In my mind, I didn’t know what to think. What happened? Jackson didn’t have enough time to get to Garrett and hurt him? What is going on?

I immediately run into Garrett’s room and see Garrett on the floor on his hands and knees. It took .02 seconds for everything to register…….What did Jackson do to him?….Did the door knock him over when Jackson walked in?…..WAIT….GARRETT IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN HIS CRIB!!!!….OH MY GOSH! HE CLIMBED & FELL OUT OF HIS CRIB!

Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, but at the moment, he cried. However, something about after that moment, Garrett had changed. He was so hyper, happy, him and Jackson were getting along great, etc. It was literally like he was proud of himself for his accomplishment of climbing out of his crib.

As silly as it sounds, our options sounded crazy to me.

Option A – Convert his bed into a toddler bed. {Are you kidding me? He will only be 18 months on Monday. He can’t be in a toddler bed yet! He will never stay in his bed and when he does go to sleep, he will roll out. Our house is baby proof, but a 18 month old roaming around the house in the middle of the night doesn’t sound 100% safe to me}

Option B – Keep him in his crib and see if he does it again. {He won’t do it again. That had to have given him a good scare. Wait! Given our FEARLESS child a good scare? How will I explain this to his doctor? “Well Doctor, he fell out of his crib yesterday and didn’t break anything, so we put him back in his crib. Now that he broke his neck I will convert it to a toddler bed.”}

Aaron and I decided on option A. Tonight after dinner, we got everything ready to convert his crib. I really wanted too SEE Garrett climb out, but before deciding to convert the crib I knew that asking him to show me how to climb out would only be practice time and encouragement for him. However, now that we were about to convert it, I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

I put Garrett in his crib. He tried to get out by pulling up on the side of the crib and lifting his leg over the front, but he wasn’t able to do it. We then left the room, stood where the hallway meets the living room where we were able to run in if he started climb out, and waited to see action. He kept trying and trying, while I started wondering how in the world he got out earlier. Then I noticed he was wearing thick cargo shorts, something he normally would not sleep in. I pulled his shorts off and he started to climb right out. I grabbed him as he was straddling the top on his crib like a horse.

This gave us 2 options – convert the crib to a toddler bed or make him sleep in bulky pants every night. haha. We converted the bed.

After converting the bed, I looked at Aaron and said “This isn’t going to be easy, but we don’t really have a choice.” Aaron looked at me, laughed, and said “I remember you saying that when we found out you were pregnant and Jackson was only 9 months old!!” Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!

Now some pictures….lots of pictures!!! I have started using Windows Live Writer which makes uploading pictures so much easier, which results in happy Grandparents. :) (FYI – My camera lens is messed up and I have to have it repaired. I apologize for the quality of these pictures…..so, let’s just focus on the quantity!

This is tonight when we “gave him permission” to climb out -

only he didn’t care to be out of his crib because we were all in his room!

We moved to the hallway/living room and he was suddenly motivated.

He was having some trouble….

so he tried the other side….

Garrett frustrated, Mom confused!I took his shorts off and this was the last picture I got before he was sitting on top of the rail.

Ta-Daa!! That’s all it took and I get to be in this big boy bed!!!

Jackson helping Daddy! They’re becoming pros at this…. Garrett is a tad bit hyper about his bed -

I think his new “Tonka Small but Mighty!” shirt gave him too much confidence today.

Getting ready to go night night - He went to sleep without any issues. That wasn’t my worry though.

Our challenge will be him rolling out of the bed. We will probably have to buy the rail for his bed, but we will see how he does first.

As I typed that last line, Aaron and I heard a door shut. (11:30pm) We assumed it was Jackson going into the bathroom, but when I looked down the hallway, Jackson’s door and the bathroom door were opened. It was Garrett shutting his own door. I guess he didn’t like hearing the TV from the living room. When I went into his room, he was crawling back in bed like no big deal. The good thing is Garrett enjoys his sleep!

30 minutes later…. {small cries} “Mama….Mama….Mama.” I walked in, he points down to his baby that fell off the bed (yes, he has a baby…and a monkey…..and a blankie) and says “Baby….baby…..” I gave him his baby and all is well…for now. I think I am going to be a light sleeper tonight.

Recipe.

Kelly’s Korner is a blog I enjoy following. Every Friday, Kelly hosts a “blog event” called Show Us Your Life with each week being a different topic. This week the topic is “Show Us Your Favorite Go To Dinner!” I thought this would be a fun one to join since I am always looking for new recipes. If you go to Kelly’s Korner, you too can view favorite recipes of others.

When trying to decide which recipe to post, I immediately thought about posting something from Pioneer Woman. For those that don’t know about the great Pioneer Woman, you MUST check out her recipes. Our family favorites are her Lasagna, Chicken Spaghetti, and Enchiladas. Since those links will take you right to the recipes, I thought I would share another recipe with you all that our family also loves.

Ginger Cilantro Pork Chops

I found this recipe here.

Ingredients for Marinade:

• 1 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup grated ginger (peel skin first before using a box grater)
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Coarse salt and pepper

Marinade pork chops in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or longer. Throw them on the grill for about 10 minutes. Enjoy!