Ballerinas

Today was the first day of ballet and tumbling class. These were two very excited little girls!!

They loved their teacher, Miss Brittany...

It was really cute, the girls had to be next to each other for most of the class.
Learning to point their toes...
Lilly cried when we left. I guess they had a good time!

What To Do...

Sometimes when it is the 63rd consecutive day of over 100℉ temps, you just have to stay inside and make some cheesecake. You know what I mean? And it's even better when it's sopapilla cheesecake and these gorgeous little goofs are your helpers!

Decked out in their cooking best! The cheesecake was so easy to make that I think they were disappointed that they only got add vanilla to cream cheese. However, licking the filling off the batters made up for it.
Then they got to play "sleepover" while it baked.
That's a recipe for a good, hot, summer day inside. I think they are having fun. What do you think?

Books!!

My world has been overtaken with books recently, which is never a bad thing. Some very sweet and precious family members with older daughters sent us boxes and boxes of great books. The girls have been absorbed in reading them. Well, when I say reading them, I mean Eric and I are mostly reading them to the girls. They are starting to enjoy looking at and reading books by themselves, but they LOVE to know what the story really says, so they make us read a lot.

They were so surprised to get these boxes. I loved their faces as I opened them and they saw all the books inside...

Thank you to Greg, Denise, Ashley & Alyssa!!! We really appreciate it!

Differences

I sit here at almost 17 weeks pregnant, and am SO excited to be feeling better. This pregnancy is so different than my last one so far. It cracks me up, because you just never know what to expect with pregnancies. Friends with 4 and 5 kids have told me how each one of their pregnancies was totally different. But I wanted to remember how different this one was from the girls.

Lilly & Lexi

• Nauseous to the point of getting sick but only a handful of times and only from about week 8 to week 13. Also sick from only about 9 am to 1 pm.
• Felt the first flutter at 13 weeks. It felt like like little butterfly wings tickling me.
• Started feeling round ligament pains after ~20 weeks.
• Heartburn started at the end of the pregnancy.
• My nose was constantly stuffed up and I could hardly breathe at night.
• Craved mostly chocolate, milk, sweets, banana pudding, and a few other things that slip my mind right now.
• Quit a HUGE caffeine habit cold turkey with minimal issues.

Baby #3

• Constantly nauseous all day and night from week 6 to week 15. That sucked! Thankfully, God let me have it worse at night, so I could still take care of the goober girls all day.
• Felt this little baby at 15 weeks. This one is quite an active little booger. I felt him once and then went a few days without feeling much. Now I feel him almost every day, a couple times a day. Today little peanut woke up during worship at church, during lunch, and several other times already.
• Round ligament pains are quite intense right now, but I am getting HUGE fast.
• I had heartburn from week 2 and it was horrible.
• This time, my nose is runny and not stuffed up so far. I prefer being able to breathe. I am also getting bloody noses which I didn't get last time.
• Craving more salty and spicy foods than I have ever eaten in my life. My favorite thing is Taco Cabana's black bean burrito with sour cream and salsa. I also went through a mashed potato and hamburger phase.
• I think this one is because I have two small children keeping me busy, but I have been unable to completely give up caffeine. I read that doctors suggest limiting caffeine to 200 mg a day, so I cut it down to about 100 mg a week. Right now, our tradition is getting me a yummy Starbucks on the way to church on Sunday mornings. I researched the caffeine levels and get a coffee with 75 mg.

So far, these are the main differences, well the ones that I am willing to write on the blog. Last time, I never felt a single contraction and had no idea I was in labor at 34 weeks. I am not looking forward to feeling all the labor pains this time. I hope I don't again, but I surely can't be that lucky twice. :)

I have a big ultrasound on the 17th of this month to find out the baby's gender!! We are super excited about it and counting down the days. And if, for some reason, the baby isn't cooperative, we will at least get better pictures and get to see my little kicker!

Also at my next OB appt in 3 weeks, we are going to be discussing the OR report from my c-section. My doctor is wonderful and has no problem with letting me have a VBAC. However, she needs to go through my file and see the specific details of my surgery. Lexi was super low and was sitting right on my cervix and they had to be careful cutting me open. It will all depend on where the uterine incision was made and any other things they may have had to do differently based on my situation. So we will discuss whether another c-section is necessary b/c of the last one, or if my body can try for a VBAC. I trust her decision, but for healing reasons, hope to avoid another surgery. I told her we would do what was best for me and the little one. :)