The binky dilemma

Lacey LOVES her binky! Every night before bed she needs to have one in her mouth and another one in her hand.  That is the ONLY way we can get her to fall asleep without a fuss.  Scott wants to start to weak her from the binky. We only allow her to have one (or two) during nap time and bed time. 

When we get her out of bed we make her leave her binkies in her crib.  The last few days I have found her like this in the middle of the day.

She pulls a box over and then attempts to climb up her crib.  Then she gets stuck and won't let go until we come get her.  She's been fairly dramatic about the whole thing.  She will lay down next to her crib and cry. Sometimes if she is acting toed enough I'll ask her off she's ready for a nap. She usually responds yes and will sit in her crib sticking on her binky for a good 20 minutes before asking to get back out.  It's so frustrating.  Scott is wanting to completely wean her and the thought of that is so overwhelming.  Do I first wean her from the hand binky? Or do I take both away,  cold turkey and just try to get through a few REALLY rough nights.

Wish me luck!

This time around hasn't been as much fun.

My pregnancy with Lacey was pretty average. I had a crappy first trimester and then things started to look up for me. I started feeling better, I got my energy and appetite back, I could feel her squirming around. This time it has been so different. I'm still a little nauseous most days. Some days are worse than others and I occasionally have a great day but I still don't feel like a normal human being.

I'm beyond tired these days. Maybe it's because I am chasing after my crazy 1 year old all day, maybe it's because I'm not sleeping well at night, maybe it's because I'm not eating enough because nothing sounds good.

I'm almost 19 weeks and still haven't felt this baby move. Maybe once or twice, while wearing some tight jeans... And bending over, I might have felt some movement. Stupid anterior placenta! I started feeling Lacey move around 17 weeks and I loved it.

Dr. Appointments are more of a hassle this time around. Am I supposed to get a babysitter for Lacey? Do I take her to all of my appointments? It was exciting with Lacey to hear the heartbeat and get all my questions answered. This time I don't really have many questions and those 5 minute appointments are cramping my style.

Apparently, my face hates me being a mom. I broke out pretty bad when I was pregnant with Lacey, and it didn't get any better after. Probably because I was breastfeeding. Then I got pregnant before I stopped breastfeeding. So I guess this mess of a face is sticking around until I'm done having kids.

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited and can't wait to have this baby in my arms but I'm not really digging all these pregnancy side effects.

I can't do it.

I've come to the realization that we just have too much stuff. Some of it I have kept for sentimental reasons. Other things I don't want to throw out or give away because maybe I'll need it some day. I know that I need to debunk, but I don't know how to do it. I don't know where to start. I wish I could live a clean organized minimalist lifestyle, but I just don't think that is an option for me.

Occasionally I will get in the mood to throw everything out. I just hope one of those rare moods comes along soon, before baby #2 comes.

She's a little artist

Lacey has recently decided that she loves to draw and color. Before she was more interested in sucking on her marker or eating her crayon. Now she spends a good 10 minutes coloring when given a crayon and some paper. She still takes a bite out of the occasional crayon, but now she also likes to color.

Today she was coloring and then she went into her bed room. We were watching another little girl too and I could hear them playing with some toys. Then it got kind of quiet. Then I could hear the sound of crayon being dragged back and forth on the wall. She was so proud of her artwork when I ran into the room to stop her. Luckily crayon really isn't to hard to get cleaned off the wall.

Driving through the night

Lacey was a champ on the drive out to Arkansas, but I think we scared her. Every time we got in the car she fought to get out of her car seat. we were a little worried about doing another 10.5 hour drive with her. Last minute we decided to pack up and leave right after dinner. That meant driving through the night and then getting home close to the time that Lacey would be waking up for he day. Scott has a talent of falling asleep anytime, anywhere. He insisted on driving the whole way home, and I didn't want him to try to push through being super tired. That meant I was awake the entire time, asking him questions, talking to him, singing to music just to make sure he was good to drive. I don't have that problem, it takes a conscious effort for me to fall asleep. Even when I am super tired. I haven't ever accidentally fallen asleep somewhere. I offered to drive multiple times, but each time Scott said he had it covered.
Lacey was actually awake for a good portion of the drive home. I am so grateful that we loaded a couple movies onto the iPad and that we charged the iPad before we left.

She would watch a show for a bit and then she would doze off. Every time she woke up she wanted me to come back and sit by her. I just wanted to get home as fast as we could so I didn't want to have to pull over everytime she woke up. I took the headrest off of the passenger seat and got pretty good and crawling back and forth between the front seat and the back seat.

I didn't want to have to pee a million times so I made sure not to drink anything after we decided to drive through the night. Scott on the other hand downed a couple monster energy drinks which went straight through him. He had to pee every hour. He didn't actually stop every hour, he would just let me know we would need to stop sometime soon. We made it back home with only making 3 stops . 

She was a trooper and because she missed some sleep it meant that she slept for a couple hours after we got home. Scott and I survived the day on only about 4 hours of sleep, taking different shifts with Lacey. It was such a fun trip. I'm so glad that we were able to go visit Heidi and Steve and show them how cute our little girl is.

Scott was so wonderful. He drove the entire way without a single complaint. He slept for 4 hours then he got up, unloaded the car, unpacked everything, picked up the house, and then let me nap while he played with Lacey. I'm telling you, I got lucky with this guy.

Lacey loves her animals

Heidi and Steve have a little dog named Oscar. Lacey loves to chase him around their house all day. The only problem is that she is a much bigger fan of him then he is of her. He is okay for the first few minutes and then he starts to growl at her. She is slowly starting to learn to back off when he starts growling.

Neither Scott or I are pet people so odds are were ably won't ever have any pets for her to love on. Lacey called Oscar "offk" it was so cute. She would hear his tags on his collar jingle and call out for him.

Animal Fun

Today we went through a drive through safari park.  We got to drive through and see a lot of cool animals.  It was a lot of fun and Lacey got a kick out of seeing all the animals.

After the drive through part we were able to go to the petting zoo part.  It was so much fun.  We got to pet a cow, goats,  llamas, and tortoises. We got to see wolves,  birds,  kangaroos, snakes, and monkeys. We even got to feed a giraffe.  Scariest thing ever,  haha.