20 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: I'll find out next week at my doctor's appointment. 

Size of Baby: Baby James is the size of a banana!

Maternity Clothes: Yes!

Sleep: Bad, bad, bad! Between our cat acting like a psycho all night and my acid reflux, sleep has not been plentiful. Friday night I had a pretty bad acid/choking episode and slept a grand total of 3 hours between 6 and 9 am...brutal!

Movement: Maybe a couple flutters but not much else. :(

Cravings/Aversions: Craving sweets! And very thirsty - trying to drink water like it's my job.

What I Miss: Booze. Just being honest. 

Gender: Boy! Sweet baby James!

Mood: Pretty good! Nesting - I have quite a list of projects!

Symptoms/Medical Concerns: Feeling pretty good overall. My feet are sore...when I get up in the mornings my feet feel like I've already been walking around a lot. Feeling a little out of breath at times when I'm leaning down to put Claire's shoes on, etc. 

I finished off my bottle of Diclegis (anti-nausea med) this week. One day recently I forgot to take it and had nausea; but since stopping it fully this week, I've been feeling fine with the exception of a tiny hint of gagging in the morning when I brush my teeth. 

Differences from Last Pregnancy: Right now they're feeling pretty similar. 

Milestones: Reaching the halfway point! The last couple months have gone quickly, but time before that seemed to crawl. Crazy exciting to think that we'll be having a baby in less than 5 months!

Best Moment this Week: Buying some adorable clothes for my sweet boy! It's weird to be shopping for a boy...I'm so used to just automatically going to the girl section. As I expected, you really have to dig for cute boy stuff. I'm pretty picky about boy clothes...I really don't care for the trend of tons of writing all over t-shirts and fake ties. I think it's bizarre to look at a sweet little boy and see "If you think I'm cute, you should see my aunt/cousin/dad, etc" written in bold print on his shirt. Isn't our culture going to inflate a kid's ego enough down the road? Can't we just let them be babies? Anyway, I found several really sweet sleepers and outfits for James...can't wait to see him in them!

What I'm Looking Forward to: My appointment next week!

Here's a halfway point bump picture!

19 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: Who knows?

Size of Baby: James is the size of a large heirloom tomato. According to the ultrasound today, he is measuring right on track!

Maternity Clothes: Yes, indeed!

Sleep: Okay. I had trouble sleeping a few nights, but it's been better the last couple days.

Movement: Yesterday, I felt something twice. I always seem to feel things when I'm sitting in the passengers seat in my mom's car and I turn around to look at/give something to Claire behind me. Interestingly enough, at our ultrasound today I found out that my placenta is now anterior, as it was with Claire. This explains why I haven't felt much movement these past few weeks! I guess that's just the way my placentas (placentii? ha) roll! 

Cravings/Aversions: I'm craving sweets! My appetite has really increased in the last week or so...baby is growing! When she looked at James' abdomen today, the ultrasound tech commented that our baby boy is definitely not going hungry...haha!  

What I Miss: Can't really think of anything right now!

Gender: It's a boy!! James Strutton Todd! We are thrilled! It will be such an adventure having a little boy...it was absolutely adorable seeing Cam with visions of baseball and football with his son in his head once we found out it was a boy!

Mood: Good. Very emotional today, especially this evening. I remember being the same way after we found out Claire was a girl. The whole thing just makes me very emotional! 

Symptoms/Medical Concerns: I'm really in the golden phase of pregnancy. I feel great most of the time! I've had headaches this week, but I think that's related to allergies. The feeling very full at night thing is back this week...I think it's related to my reflux and everything getting pressed together as the baby grows. 

I get weekly pregnancy updates from Babycenter and I remember recently it said I might start being more clumsy at this point in the pregnancy. Well, that was definitely spot on! I dropped my phone on the ground this weekend and it BOUNCED OFF THE CONCRETE into a pool. Cam jumped in the pool very heroically and saved my phone. It's been on rice life support and overall, it's working pretty well. Sometimes it acts possessed and types the letter M over and over, but I'm just relieved it's working at all! I've been dropping other stuff a lot too. As we all know, I was VERY clumsy at the end of my first pregnancy, so I'm trying to watch my footwork very closely from here on out!  

Differences from Last Pregnancy: They're fairly similar right now!

Best Moment this Week: Getting to see our pumpkin on the ultrasound today and finding out we are having a sweet baby boy! We also had a really fun weekend in Sugar Land with Cam's family! Claire has the best time!

What I'm Looking Forward to: Buying some things for sweet baby James to wear and starting the process of getting his room ready to decorate! 

It's a...

BOY!!!

James Strutton Todd is healthy and absolutely precious.

What a fun, whirlwind day it has been! We are absolutely thrilled! It will be so fun to have one of each! Our sweet baby James wasted no time today showing us exactly who he was! Everything looks good and healthy, which is wonderful! I don't know why, but I was more nervous about that part of things this time than I remember being last. I just didn't see how we could possibly get lucky enough to have two healthy babies. We are so thankful.

Cam's parents came into town for the day, and our dads were nice enough to watch Claire and Grace so that Cam, my mom, mother-in-law, sister, and I could go to the ultrasound together. Afterward, we came home and shared the news with them, and then we all went to lunch together. It was such a fun and special day!

It was so funny to compare this ultrasound to Claire's!! Claire was demure and very lady-like, keeping her legs crossed for 45 minutes! It took drinking water, going to the bathroom and doing jumping jacks to get her to finally reveal herself! Today, it took less than 5 minutes for James to "show us his stuff"! So funny! Definitely all boy!

There's a tradition in Cam's family of naming a boy James and then using the mother's maiden name as a middle name. Cam's full name is James Campbell Todd, and his dad and grandfather are both James as well. Even before meeting Cam, James was my favorite boy name. We are honored and very excited to carry on the tradition! We plan to call him James. It works out pretty cool that each of our babies will have our middle names. Claire's is Campbell, like her Daddy. James' will be Strutton...when I got married and changed my last name, I took my maiden name as my middle name. I'm glad the Strutton name will be carried on in that way through our boy! A little boy is a whole new adventure for my family, as we are a family of daughters who both had daughters first. My Daddy, the eternal outdoorsman, informed me he was going to buy James a shotgun tonight...ha!!!!!!

It was a wonderful day and we loved having family with us to celebrate! We can't wait to meet James in November!

18 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: Still don't know. Honestly, I'm not really obsessing over every pound. I certainly have a limit that I will try to stay under, but regardless of what happens during this pregnancy, I will have a lot of work to do unless this baby comes out weighing about 50 lbs.

Size of Baby: Baby Todd is the size of a bell pepper.

Maternity Clothes: Yep, most of the time.

Sleep: It's been okay. Friday night I had my first acid choking episode of this pregnancy. Ugh. I hardly slept a wink until 6 am. I'm just praying this isn't an ongoing issue like it was during my first pregnancy. My sleep for the rest of the week has been much better.

Movement: Not much this week.

Cravings/Aversions: I've been craving Chinese food and big chewy sweet tarts...not together though!

What I Miss: Not really anything at the moment. 

Gender: We find out in 1 week! I'm so excited!! This topic has been on my mind so much this week...just because our ultrasound is coming up soon and we went to a gender reveal party for some friends this weekend. Honestly I will be really happy either way. I just want a good sleeper this time around. ;)

Mood: Good, excited, content, and productive. Nesting is starting to kick in and it feels really good to not be the lazy slug I was during the first trimester. 

Symptoms/Medical Concerns: I'm in that wonderful part of pregnancy where I feel really good. If it weren't for the growing baby bump, I almost forget I'm pregnant sometimes. If I'm on my feet a lot, they get pretty sore and swell a little, but it's nothing too bad. 

Differences from Last Pregnancy: I feel pretty similar to how I felt with Claire...some people are theorizing that means it's another girl, but who knows? 

I guess the major difference right now is that I'm not teaching during this pregnancy. I cannot overstate how much of a difference this has made for me. Being on my feet all day as a teacher was rough and while I'm certainly busy now, I have much more control over what I'm doing. The school year I was pregnant with Claire was by far the most stressful working experience of my life, thanks to an asshole supervisor who went out of his way to punish me and the other pregnant teacher on my team for being pregnant and needing to take maternity leave. He lasted all of a year at my school. Add in the regular stress of teaching and doing sub plans for maternity leave and it was a nightmare (one I still have actual nightmares about). The swelling and blood pressure issues all of this caused nearly landed me on bed rest. All that to say, it doesn't escape me for a second how blessed I am to be home with Claire this time. I am so so so thankful. 

Best Moment this Week: This weekend was super jam-packed, but it was fun to spend time with Cam, Claire, and our friends!

What I'm Looking Forward to: Next Wednesday! 

17 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: I'm not sure.

Size of Baby: Baby #2 is the size of a turnip.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, most of the time. I'm still wearing a few shirts that aren't maternity.

Sleep: It's been okay.

Movement: I've felt my little bambino twice this week. It's always when I'm reaching for something and moving into some awkward position, so I always get scared I'm hurting the baby and move real quick.

Cravings/Aversions: I want Chewy Sweet Tarts! All day, errday.

What I Miss: I really want a mimosa. I know I keep answering this question with different alcoholic bevs, but I promise I'm not a lush. I just watch a lot of Bravo and the ladies on those shows are always drinking. 

Gender: Just two more weeks! We're counting down the days until June 18th! 

Mood: Pretty good. The Great Insurance Crisis of 2014 is finally resolved, thankfully. I suddenly find myself with hours of extra time everyday now that I'm not spending them on the phone with Humana. This does great things for my mood!

Symptoms/Medical Concerns: I'm feeling really good! I haven't even felt nauseous this week, but I'm still taking my medicine just in case. It's really night and day from how I felt a few weeks ago. I sort of dropped out of life for a couple of months there and now it's so nice to have energy to go and do things. I'm trying to take advantage of that now because I know it won't be as easy or always possible with two kids.

Milestones: Can't really think of anything. I guess just continuing to feel better and better.

Best Moment this Week: Just getting to be with my Clairebear. She is in such a sweet and funny stage right now. Her emotional development over the past couple months has been amazing to watch. During this pregnancy, I've had some of the typical second-time mom fears about how I will ever have room in my heart to love a second baby the way I love Claire. The love you feel for your firstborn is pretty overwhelming, but I know that it will be the same way for my second baby too. Claire and I have our little routine and there is so much sweetness and comfort in that, and I worry I'm about to throw a wrench in that for her (and myself, honestly), but I know that we're really giving her the best gift in the world...a sibling! Every mom of two tells me these feelings are totally normal, but I guess it's just something everyone has to feel and process for themselves. We were at a birthday party this weekend and there was a 1 month old there. Claire kept going over to the baby carrier and peering inside at the baby. It was really sweet to see her showing interest! I know she will have jealous moments when our baby comes, but it gave me more confidence to see that.

What I'm Looking Forward to: June 18th!