6 months pregnant

On the 27th I hit the 6 month mark. I don't have a good belly shot so I'm posting a really cute picture of Violet and I on the carousel at the fair that we took that day. I have a friend who's trying to build her photography portfolio and she's offered to take maternity shots of me (along with Violet) so I'll post some of those after we take them.





All in all I'm doing pretty well although I feel like I've had a pretty hard time lately.


I'll start with the good stuff: The baby moves a lot. Seems like every time I sit still I can feel him move around. Sometimes I can feel his foot poking out which I love. I felt hiccups for the first time a few days ago and have pretty much felt them at least once a day since. I looked at my pregnancy log that I kept with Violet and at this point no one had really felt her move on the outside and I don't think I felt hiccups until much later so this little guy either moves a lot more than she did or I just know what to look/feel for. My weight gain is pretty good, I'm up 25 lbs and I think the range listed in the books is 16-24 lbs at this stage, but I believe this is about where I was with Violet. Unfortunately, I feel like only a small part of that weight gain is in my belly and the rest resides in my butt and thighs. Oh well.


Here's some of the not-so-good stuff: I've been quite emotional during the past couple of weeks. I honestly think that I've been a little overwhelmed with Dominic being in a cast and feeling like I have to do everything. Violet is going through a severe Mommy phase right now. We're not sure if its because of her age or because her normal routine with Dad hasn't been the same since he got hurt. I love that she always wants to be with me but it takes its toll on me emotionally if she throws a fit everytime I walk out of the room. I either caught a stomach bug or food poisoning from a VERY BAD dinner that I shouldn't have eaten (patty melt, fries, malt) and I think I had the worst night of my life. Sparing the horrid details, I lost over 2 lbs that night and was drained of energy for a couple days afterward. With the exception of not totally having my appetite back, I'm fine. On top of that I recently jammed a mechanical pencil about 1/4" up my finger as well as slicing a pretty good chunk into a different finger with a very sharp serrated edge knife which led me to a 3hr visit to the ER just to get the flap glued back on. I'm hoping I just had a rough couple of weeks and things will only get better. As far as pregnancies go, I know I'm incredibly lucky to have everything go so well.


My back and hips are starting to hurt more and sleeping has been a bit difficult but I just bought a pregnancy body pillow and have had 2 of the 6 pregnancy massages that I have scheduled which helps tremendously. Hopefully Dominic will get his cast off on Monday and things will get better after that. I think I need to go to pregnancy water aerobics as well because I didn't seem to have any back issues with Violet and I was really good about regularly going.

I have two sets of bedding for the baby and am trying to decide which to return. I think instead of going with a whole coordinating set, I'll just stick with a color scheme (sage green/chocolate brown). I'm looking into buying a double stroller although I'd hate to sell my BOB because I love it so much. We still haven't bottomed out on a name. I have a few in mind but I can't get Dominic to commit to any of them.


I guess that's the latest...

Dominic's latest injury

On June 30th, Dominic slid into second base during his softball game and tore the ligament that holds his tibia and fibula together near his ankle. The force was so great that the ligament actually broke the bone and took a piece with it. The injury happened to be on his right side, the same side where he got the Jones Fracture last fall that had him in a cast for 10 weeks. After he got the injury on a Sunday night, he went to the Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic the next day and they diagnosed the injury and Tuesday morning he was in surgery. They inserted two screws to hold the bones together because the ligament was no longer doing that. The screws will be removed a couple months after he gets his cast off - we don't know yet if that will require another surgery.

I've been a little overwhelmed, to say the least, having to work, take care of Violet, and do EVERYTHING around the house including cook, clean, shop, waiting on Dominic, etc. all while being 5-6 months pregnant. I had an emotional breakdown and felt much better after I fell apart and pulled it back together again. Nathanael was only here for a week between trips but he was pretty helpful. We also got some house cleaners to come through the house and that made me feel a lot better especially since I'm nesting and can't stand to have the house too dirty right now.

He's been in a non-weight bearing cast all of July and will get it off (hopefully) on August 4th and should get a walking cast at that point. Its been too hard for him to watch Violet so I spent some time away from work, my mom helped, Nathanael helped for the week he was here, and for this week and next week Violet went to daycare, or "school", for the very first time. Violet loves going to school so much that until the baby comes, I might start spending 4-5hrs every Monday morning donating my time to another classroom so Violet can hang out in her classroom for a little extra socialization. The classroom leader couldn't believe how smart she is and she has such a great attitude.

Playgroup at the zoo

This is only about half the playgroup gals with the kiddos. Violet is the motherless child on the far left (someone had to take the photo). This was taken back in the middle of June and its amazing how much all the kids have grown just in the last month.

Violet loves Daddy

Who else would Mommy allow to throw her so high in the air?

No, that second one was not photoshop'd. Her toes really are a good two feet above Dominic's hands. These pictures were taken on Father's Day so they're over a month old.

Trip to Butchart Gardens with my Mom

My mom and I celebrated two very important birthdays this year, however I won't say how many decades have passed since either of us was born. Let's just say it was a big birthday year for both of us. To celebrate the two of us spent a couple nights in Victoria BC and it was a memorable trip, to say the least. We went in the middle of June so these pictures are a good six weeks old. Some people couldn't really tell I was pregnant then but its pretty darn obvious now. As with most trips I taken, our travels centered around the cuisine. We stuffed ourselves on two different occasions with afternoon tea (it was excellent at the Gardens) and the breakfast at our B&B was to die for. http://www.fairholmemanor.com/

Here's a pic of the two of us in the Japanese Garden:

This is a photo of the Sunken Garden:

I was fascinated by these flowers. I believe they are a variety of poppy but they were huge with a diameter of at least 8 inches (or I should say 20.5cm since they were in Canada).

I think this must be related to a Dandelion. I just really liked the way it looked:

Pretty wisteria over a small pond:

Violet is 18 months old today

Its very easy to remember Violet's half birthday because it falls on the 4th of July. For those of you who haven't seen her in awhile (or ever), here's an update on how she's doing and an excuse for me to do nothing but brag about our little princess.

She is incredibly smart. She knows the entire alphabet and can say any letter that you point to. You can also tell her any letter and she'll bring it to you from her letter puzzle. She also loves to count and can easily count to 10 (except for seven - she knows seven comes after six and before 8 but she has never said the word seven and she usually just says eight twice in a row). She has an incredible vocabulary for someone her age and knows more words than I can list - there's probably at least 100 in her vocabulary. She's really good at stacking and loves to get into the pantry and stack cans on the floor. She loves to read books and has a lot of them memorized where she'll say the words before I have a chance to read them aloud. She knows any body part you teach her and can point out most things from her forehead down to her toes. Everyday she looks around for "Fan-yle" (Nathanael) but she doesn't understand that he's going to be gone for most of the summer.

We started trying to potty train her this month but haven't been super consistent. She knows when she has to go or when she's going and she says "poo poo" and as soon as she goes she says "check" because she wants us to look in her diaper to see the wonderful surprise she made. She actually pee'd on the potty once but I'm not sure if it was intentional. We just picked up another potty for the upstairs so it'll be easier to start putting her on it after she wakes up.

She has 12 teeth right now - 4 up front on top and bottom and 4 molars. You can see her eye teeth pushing through but they haven't broken through the gums yet.

She is a fabulous eater. She does a great job spoon feeding herself and isn't very messy at all. She loves fruit (mostly strawberries, peach/nectarine, cherries, grapes) and isn't a big fan of vegetables unless its corn or it comes in a baby food jar. She also loves spaghetti, certain types of meat like sausage or marinated chicken, cottage cheese mixed with fruit or veggies, rice, cheese of any kind... actually she like a lot of different kinds of food so I won't try to list them all. She loves sitting in adult chairs and at the table so we just bought her a booster seat so she can sit with us at the table instead of in her high chair. Her favorite store to shop at is Whole Foods because they always have an abundance of samples.

She is also a great sleeper (I'll give Dominic credit for this one because I'd probably still be running into her room with every little peep if he hadn't shown me how to wait it out and learn when she just needs to fuss versus when she really needs us). She loves to goof off in her crib before she falls asleep and after she wakes up and usually sleeps ~12hrs a night and has a good two hour nap during the day. Sometimes she'll take an afternoon nap if she's really tired. She has a very strong bond with a few items that if ever lost would probably impact her sleep. They are her sleep sack (very necessary item - its a blanket that will never come off no matter how much she walks or rolls around), Mr. Lamb, Mimi the mole, Ugly Doll, and her blankie.

Violet has taken a recent interest in clothes and likes to try to dress herself. We always have to keep a hair clip in to keep her bangs out of her eyes because we haven't (and probably won't) cut them but she sometimes likes to have 2 or 3 clips in at a time.

Basically, there's so much more I could say about her but there's just not enough time and not enough words to capture how incredible she is. Violet just has so much personality and intelligence and she is just so darn cute! She continues to amaze us every day and brings so much joy to our lives.