Dear Baby Sister,

Dear baby sister,
That's what you're known as in our house. I'm writing this so I can remember my pregnancy with you and remember how different it is compared to that of your older brother's 4 years ago. I am now 34 weeks along with you. 6 weeks left...hooray! Actually, I've been confused since day 1 of when your due date actually is. When I went to my first doctors appointment, somehow they came up with August 13 as the date. But everything I've looked up, including the doctors method of figuring it out, said August 11. Where did the 13th come from? Who knows? Then at your 20-week ultrasound, you were measuring to be due the 8th. Only 3-5 days difference, but every day matters to me. At my appointment a couple weeks ago, they told me August 8, but I really just don't know. I guess you'll come when you come. Your daddy and I have yet to agree on a name for you. We just haven't agreed on any yet. Your daddy has a family name that he has his heart set on (and we're not going to say what it is at this point), but I like the name more for a middle name. I guess we have 6 weeks to come up with a list to at least take to the hospital. You maybe be nameless for a little while.
My pregnancy with you has been different from that of your brother's. I have actually gained a significant amount less with you than I did with your brother, but a lot can change in 6-weeks time. I was hoping you might be smaller, but looking at my tummy and feeling your movements makes me doubt you're a small one. I think you're going to be big just like your brother was. As long as you're healthy, that's all that matters. Today was the first day in 9 months that I woke up and said that I was done being pregnant. I'm not sure I'm ready for 6 more weeks. I've had a lot more aches and pains in my legs and hips than I ever experienced with Jace. I really can't wait for you to come so that I can brush my teeth again without feeling like I'm going to throw up everytime, I can roll over in bed without saying ouch everytime, I can sleep for more than a couple hours without waking up with either acid reflux or having to go to the bathroom. We're getting really excited to meet you. I'm not sure what big brother is going to think, but mommy and especially daddy are really excited to meet their little princess. Give me 3 more weeks so that I can get my vacation in for the summer and then please feel free to come anytime!
Love, Mommy

Thoughts of a Working Mom

I have a lot on my mind today. I've been thinking a lot lately about being a working mom and how hard it is working the hours I do, especially lately. I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's starting to take a toll on me. I've worked throughout the whole 4 years since I was pregnant and had Jace. As baby #2 quickly approaches, I keep thinking about how much harder it's going to be going back to work with 2 kids at home. I might ramble on a lot in this post because I'm not very good at putting things into writing. I know a lot of moms have to work and I honestly wonder how they do it. Lately, I've been working pretty much full time hours covering for other employees and to earn a little extra money before I leave for maternity leave. And I feel like everyday, it just gets harder and harder for me to leave Jace and Lance. As I've said before, Jace has been diagnosed with aspergers. Before he turned 3, he had a lot of social problems. We actually tried setting up a playgroup with a neighbor and Jace would always play by himself at the group. So, basically, the playgroup didn't continue because the kids were never playing together. Here we are a year later and Jace is like a new kid. All he longs for is kids to play with. And it kills me. Because of my job, we never have time to join in on those activities. A lot of kids go to McDonald's or to the park, but because I have to go to work, I can't take Jace. Today, I think it really hit me. We had someone come over to check out our swamp cooler and his kids came with. Jace was having so much fun with them that when they had to leave, Jace actually climbed into their truck and asked to go with them. I had to make him get out and he just cried and cried after that. We got invited to go with them because they were getting lunch, but because I had to get ready and go to work, I had to feed him leftovers and make him stay with mommy. I have never ever seen my little boy so sad in my life. It just broke my heart. Being a full time working mom is so hard. I wish I had the option of staying home with my little boy everyday and letting him go out and do fun activities with friends every once in awhile. We've never "clicked" with people in our neighborhood I think because we're never home.

I think working full time has taken its own toll on our marriage. I'm not saying my marriage is bad because it's not by any means. But things haven't been as peachy keen as they used to be when I only worked 20 hours a week. Lance and I just work completely opposite schedules. It's hard because I want to stay at home and cook dinner and sit at the dinner table every night with my husband and little boy. Instead, I have to hear about Lance and Jace sitting at the table together having fun little conversations. I don't enjoy cooking because if I cook, I just have to leave it for Lance and Jace to eat later. I long for date nights with my husband, but I work every weekend. Our only real days together are Sundays. I just miss all the time we used to have together.

Anyways, like I said, I'm not trying to sound like a complainer. These are just thoughts running through my head lately. Working is just something I've got to do at this time. Everyday, I secretly wish I could quit my job especially when my baby girl comes. I wish that we had the budget for me to quit. How do all you stay-at-home moms do it? Honestly! If you made it through this post, bravo. If not, I don't blame you!

Naptime

I know it's been awhile yet again since I've updated my blog. What can I say? I guess life just isn't exciting in the Rowley household. It's hard to find things to blog about. But anyways, here's at least a little bit of what we've been up to in the past couple months.

I know the past couple posts, I've talked about Jace's potty training, and I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing about Jace's potty training. It honestly felt like a never-ending battle getting him potty-trained. I didn't feel like it would ever happen. But last month, I finally got rid of his pullups. He now only has underwear and it's been going great! He doesn't really have accidents, except occasionally in bed. He only struggles when we're away from our house or mother-in-law's house. He can seriously hold it for hours beyond hours! He'll go all through preschool and not go potty, but he won't have accidents either. The main thing though is that there is improvement and he's doing very well!

We're approaching the last little bit of being pregnant with this baby. I'm now between 29 and 30 weeks, so we've reached the last trimester! Yay! Things with her are still looking good. We're getting pretty excited to meet her. I think my nesting has kicked in a little because I've been on a cleaning spree this week. Once I start cleaning, I just can't stop, and then I suffer later with being sore. But hey, it's worth it to have a clean house. I think my cleaning has motivated Jace to do his own cleaning. I got home at 10:30 last night and Jace was still up (he isn't usually up, but he took a really late nap). When I got home, all he wanted to do was clean his room. It wasn't exactly in my plans, but how do you say no when they're asking to clean? Then, today Jace pulled out all of my clorox wipes and wiped everything down for me from the side table in the living room clear to the kitchen table. Again, I wasn't upset because he's saving me a little extra work. Now that I've gotten the inside mostly clean, I'm VERY anxious to get some flowers planted in my yard. Last year, I made the mistake of starting working outside and I got so stuck on keeping it looking nice, that I neglected the inside of the house, so this year, I knew I needed to do it the other way around.

Preschool ended yesterday for the year. I don't know if Jace quite understands that it's over and he won't get to take the bus for a few more months. I'm a little sad to see it end because Jace loved it. I guess I just need to find some fun things for him to do this summer to keep him occupied. I'm very grateful for Jace having been to that preschool. I've seen so much improvement in him since he started there. I'm anxious for it to start again already.

Now, onto the title of my post. Jace is a funny kid. Lately, when he falls asleep in the car, he covers his head. I guess the dark helps him sleep better. So, whatever he finds in the car to cover his head, he'll use it to cover his head. \
For instance: his jacket

Or: his umbrella


So, anyways, that's about it for us for now. Hopefully as we do things this summer, I'll blog more about them, but this is it for now! Nothing exciting, as usual, but hey, at least it's something.

Daddy's Little Princess

Well, as the blog title pretty much says, Lance is getting his little girl. Yep, Jace is getting a little sister, and we couldn't be more excited and thrilled about it! This ultrasound was so much funner than when we had Jace. It just seems like they went over every little part of her body and we could see so many great details. Not to mention that my bladder didn't have to be full of 32 ounces of water this time! It's just amazing how technology has grown. We could see all 4 chambers of the heart beating together. We even saw her swallow! When they were taking shots of her face, you could see her hand up right next to her mouth and her opening and closing her mouth like she was trying to get her hand in there. It was just so sweet. Before I even got pregnant with Jace, I had a dream one night that I had a little boy and he looked just like me. Then, the next night, I had a dream that I had a baby girl that looked like Lance. So, I'm thinking that if it's right, then this little girl is going to come out with dark hair and brown eyes. But then again, I was sure that with Lance's strong genes, Jace was going to come out with dark hair. Boy, was I surprised when he came out with blonde hair. Anyways, here are just a few shots of my little girl.

Here she is looking right at the camera.

Her legs...she's already a perfect lady and had her ankles crossed.

A shot of her spine.

Here she is...definitely a girl! Lance was so cute. When the ultrasound tech said girl, he kept asking "are you sure?" The tech said she was pretty sure.

They kept trying to get a profile shot, but she was just not going to have it! This is the best they could do.

They measured the baby and everything. My due date is August 11th, but based on her measurements, it looks like she's measuring just a few days big and is showing the 8th of August. I'm sure they'll keep the due date as the 11th though. It's funny because even though she's measuring a little big, I haven't gained any weight yet. Maybe I'll get lucky and won't gain the tremendous amount of weight I gained with Jace. We'll see!

So, when I was 9 months pregnant with Jace, my grandfather passed away. I felt so lucky to bring a little boy into this world at that time. Anyways, a couple weeks ago, my grandmother passed away, so I feel very lucky to be bringing a little girl into this world. I know that they're not replacing my grandparents, but there's just something really special knowing that my grandparents are getting to know my little ones right before they're coming to this earth. I feel like they're getting to bond and my grandparents are just up there getting them all prepared of what is to come.

Anyways, we're halfway done now! Crazy to think in 20 short weeks, we'll be having a little girl join our family. We can't wait!!!

Life with a 3-year-old

I need to warn all readers...this post is kind of to express the frustrations of having a 3-year-old. I'm writing it mainly so I can remember Jace at this age since I've been so great about documenting life with him as he grows (notice sarcasm). So, anyways, Jace has always been such a great kid. Don't get me wrong, he still is a wonderful little boy, but since he's turned 3, he's become a slightly more troublesome child. They say kids go through terrible two's, but believe me, at least with Jace, age three has been more terrible than the two's.

Let's start with potty training. So, in my last post a month ago, I mentioned that I decided to take away the diapers and make Jace go potty. Well, it went so super, at least for a couple weeks. He wouldn't have accidents and he would tell me when he needed to go potty, even if it was on a car ride to grandma's. Well, at least with going #1. When it came to #2, he refused to go. He would just hold it for so long. Then, problems occurred. He became so constipated that he would just cry out in pain all the time. So, his pediatrician told us to stop potty training him and start him on a laxative called Miralax. So, the only change I made was I put him in pullups a little more because I didn't know what the laxative would do to him right at the beginning. I didn't take away his underwear. I just put pullups on more often. I didn't think it would be a problem because even when he was doing so well going potty, he learned not to wet his pullup. Then, Jace just became completely uninterested in going potty altogether. I still put him in underwear, but he has more accidents or he just holds it for as long as he can. I think everything got screwed up all because he had a hard time pooping in the potty. I admit, a month ago, I LOVED potty training! Now, I hate it. I guess I figured it was too good to be true having him do so well at the beginning. He's not easily motivated either. Bribes don't work. Stickers don't work. He has his mind set on making this difficult for me.

I know this is common with probably all kids, but I can't even take my eyes off of Jace for one second. He is just a mess maker. By the time I get one mess cleaned up, he has another one made. Our house is never clean because he always has a new mess made in a new place. Today, I was cleaning up the living room and he took all our plastic sacks, garbage sacks, and ziplocs out of their boxes and scattered them on the kitchen floor and down the stairs. So, I got the living room clean, but now there's a new mess for me to clean tomorrow. It's a never ending process. I put Jace in the bathtub yesterday and stepped out of the room for a couple minutes. By the time I got back in there, he had 2 brand new bottles of body wash completely dumped in the tub. It's hard. I can't keep up with him. I don't know how other mothers do it. Believe me, nobody can see the inside of my house because it is honestly a disaster 99% of the time from my crazy 3-year-old.

I think Jace has turned into kind of a little rebel. I can tell him no not to do things and I almost feel like he's going against me and does it anyway even though he knows there's going to be a consequence for it. For instance, I had a bag of m&m's out to eat and they were opened in one corner. Jace found the bag and slowly starting pouring small piles out. I got after him and told him to stop and he looked at me and ripped the bag open and poured them all over the floor and ran away. It's liking telling him no means nothing to him. I think Jace is just finally old enough that he gets really bored. He always has to find something to do. I honestly wonder what having a new sibling will mean to him. I'm not sure if he'll be any better or worse. Luckily, I have 24 weeks to think about that.

I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining. I knew Jace wasn't always going to be the easiest child. I got lucky with him up until he turned 3. Anyways, he really is a joy. I love hearing the things he comes up with. He makes me laugh on a daily basis. Here are some great things about him right now.

*He is really starting to figure out his shapes. He loves to draw circles. We told him to draw a triangle the other day and he managed to draw the v-shape. He just couldn't quite get the line to connect them.
*He knows his colors and is starting to kind of figure out that 2 colors will change something to another color. I was giving him a bath the other night and I put a yellow and red tablet in to change the color and he was able to tell me that the water was going to be orange.
*He is still such a memorizer. He knows songs and commercials and everything.
*He has such an imagination. He has 3 yogi bear toys and today he was playing with them like one was him, one was daddy, and one was mommy. Woody from Toy Story says the phrase "there's a snake in my boot". So, Jace got one of his cowboy boots the other day and his toy snake and put it inside the boot and told Lance that there was a snake in his boot.
*He loves preschool. His favorite part is still the bus ride. I love it when he gets so excited and brings me home things he made at school.
*He always makes us stop what we're doing when he has a scratch (aka, an itch).
*He loves sunbeams. His favorite song is "Hello". He just smiles when they sing that song.
* He is a singer. He really does love to sing. Whether it be a song from preschool or even a song he made up.
*He's very curious. He always asks us "What's happeping? What's that sound? What are you talking about?"
*He's all of a sudden very complimentary. I put on a new shirt yesterday and he came up to me and said "Wow mommy! I really like that shirt!" Or he'll tell me I look very handsome.

Anyways, Jace is such our pride and joy. Even though he is at a more difficult age right now, I can't imagine going a day without him in my life. He makes me smile on a daily basis as he comes up with the funny things he says or does. He is a mess maker and a little rebel, but I guess I need that little piece of chaos in my life. I can't imagine not having him around to clean up after.

On a side note, I'm 16 weeks pregnant now! Yay! It's hard to believe I'm that far. I'd post a picture, but at this point, I still feel more fat than pregnant, although, I do kind of feel like some of the fat on my tummy is starting to look more like a baby belly. In a month we find out the gender, so I'd love to hear your guesses! I might post a poll on the side of my blog, because I'm very curious to see what everyone thinks! Until next time!

A Whole New Year

Wow, I can't believe that it's already more than halfway through January. Again, sorry for my lack of blogging. I guess I'm just not motivated to blog because I don't know if anyone out there ever reads it. Does anyone read it? Please comment if you do so I know you're there! Who am I talk though? I read all of my friends' blogs and I never comment. So, anyways, I can't believe it's January! Christmas came and went. Our Christmas was wonderful as always (sorry, no pictures for now. Lance has them all on his phone). Jace actually was sick through Christmas. He was feeling well enough that we were able to go to our familys' houses on Christmas Day, but everyday before and after that, we pretty much enjoyed the comfort of our own home. This was actually the first year that Jace was actually super excited for Santa Claus and the presents and everything. He just brings me such joy.

Anyways, what we've been up to. Jace is in preschool. Not sure if I've mentioned that yet, but he started preschool at the beginning of December. He was diagnosed with aspergers a few months ago and got accepted into a special preschool in our school district. I still can't believe my little boy is in school. I wasn't expecting that for another year or 2.

This was the best picture I could get of him on his first day. Isn't he such a stud? I still can't believe how grownup he is.

Jace also started Sunbeams at the beginning of the month. I wasn't so sure how he was going to do because there aren't toys in there and they do a lot of coloring. Jace has never been one to sit down and color like other kids. Also, I play the piano in primary and I thought that the second he came into sharing time, he would high-tail it to me. Well, Jace did great in Sunbeams that first week, but once all the kids went potty, he had to come find me because "he had to go potty too" (at the time, he wasn't potty trained at all and refused to go potty, so he used it as an excuse to leave class). I made him go back to class, which he wasn't so happy about. Then, just as I assumed, the second he saw me at the piano in sharing time, he ran straight to me and was upset when I let his teacher take him back to sit with his class. He pretty much cried all through sharing time that week. After week 1, I think he knew what to expect and has done great in Sunbeams. Now he loves it, and when we get home from church, he'll attempt to sing the songs he's learned. It makes me happy to know that even though he doesn't "sing" in sharing time, he does still pick up the songs. With the aspergers though, he's always been really amazing at memorizing.

So, potty training Jace has been a super frustrating process. I think if it was up to Jace, he would never go potty. Well, with going to preschool and Sunbeams, he's had to go into the bathroom a lot with his little friends. And he tells me about it. So, finally I decided last week that it was time to just stick him in underwear and tell him his diapers were all gone. And....it's worked like a charm. He's been amazing at telling me he needs to go potty. He's only gone #2 in the potty once. I honestly think he holds it until nap time and can poop in his pullup. He also really struggles other places and if other people need to help him. He's just more comfortable with mom or dad helping him. He kind of freaks out if other people try to make him go. So, he's been doing good, but we still have a long way to go. We need to still work on going other places, going #2, and standing to go #1.

And here's our last update for this post.

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BABY #2 IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE AUGUST 11!
Okay, so I facebooked this awhile ago, so if you don't check facebook and read this, then it'll be news to you. It took longer than expected to get pregnant this time, but we are way excited that Jace is FINALLY going to be a big brother. I think he's excited too, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't completely understand what's going on and how it's going to affect him. So far, this pregnancy has been slightly more difficult than my first one, but I'm still pretty lucky compared to most pregnancies. I went through about a week of really bad nausea, but since then, it has pretty much subsided. I'm VERY picky about what I will and won't eat, which is to be expected. We had our first doctors appointment on Friday and it was so wonderful to see the little person inside of me. The best part was seeing its arms going all over the place. The doctor said with its heartbeat, it's a girl, but of course, it's too early to say right now. I think everyone's secretly hoping for a girl, but we'll be happy with either.

Anyways, that's everything as of late that I have to share for now. To end, here are some way cute pictures we got of Jace at my sister's wedding back in October.

Shutterfly

I'm not a big fan of paying big money for Christmas cards and stuff. Actually, this year, I contemplated the idea of not doing Christmas cards. Then I heard about a promo that Shutterfly is doing for 50 free Christmas cards. I figured it might just be worth it. I've done a couple things on Shutterfly in the past and I'm very happy with it. I actually made a calendar with our pictures on it and it's just great quality and looks nice in our house. I looked through their variety of Christmas cards and I'm happy with them. I love that they have such a great variety and they're all so cute. It's hard to decide which one I might actually want to use for our cards this year. I haven't actually done their cards in the past, but if they're like other things I've done, then I know that I'll be happy with them. I plan on doing just a simple card with a picture or 2 on them. I don't think I'm going to do one where I mention everything that happened through the year. It just seems too much for me this year. Shutterfly offers a lot of promos and their prices are also good. Here are a couple links to check out their products.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Check out their site and you'll also find several other fun things you can make!