Headed into 37 Weeks

I have been really bad about posting. To be honest the blog is just not what it use to be for me. I have so much going on that I forget to blog until things have long past. I will try to be better.

So I am headed into my 37th week with baby #2. We still have no name picked out. We do have Michael set for a middle name, sticking with family members for that. My sister, for those who do not know, is Michaelanne. Cohen has Thomas as a middle name after my brother and they both share May as their birth month. Well baby #2 due August 24th, however we are being induced August 17th shares his birth month with his Aunt Michaelanne so we thought how appropriate. So That is where Michael comes from. Not to slight Jeremy's side but the kids get the Beach last name so we want to represent the Jerome's in there some where. Right now front runners for names are...

Kennon
Tate
Cooper
Turner
Ryden
Beckett

Feel free to chyme in. I would love to hear your thoughts. So I am posting a pic. from 36 weeks with #2 and providing a link to one of my very first blog posts... me at 36 weeks with Cohen. Click HERE for that. I am pretty much the same size and the exact weight. I even put on the belly mold I did with Cohen and sure enough it is the same size. I did it at this point in pregnancy with him. Strange how they are the same. With this one I am a lot lower, and more out. I was much wider and high with Cohen. I actually think #2 will arrive early seeing that I am already 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. We go to the doctor tomorrow so I should have another update then. Just to note with Cohen I never dilated. They induced me at 39 weeks at not even 1 cm so being dilated already is a great thing. Means labor should progress quicker.

Enjoy the pic. May not post anymore seeing that I am getting larger and more swollen looking :)

Why I do not have time for you or anyone!

I hope this article is able to be read if yo double click on it. A friend (and client) posted this on her facebook and I could not help but share it. I am technically a stay at home mom that some how squeezes in owning her own photography company. There may be some weeks here I may only see one client and then four the following, all while take on a few design projects and a wedding or two and somehow I still manage to not have to put my son in daycare (yes he does go to school a couple of times a week until 2 and trust me that is not long enough)... I sit at 2:30 in the morning at 8 months pregnant with #2 (still not sure what I was thinking there but know I will embrace and love it) editing, emailing, planning, paying bills and wondering why the F do I do it this way?

I thought this article was perfect! So many of my friends without kids just do not get it... they just do not get how difficult it is to maintain friendships and the life you had before kids. They think I should be able to balance and trust me I would like to. The worst part is, is that I know so many husbands to my girlfriends, especially the ones that are just now having their first kids struggle to understand why their wife is too tired or busy for them (or sex) or why they act different! Mine acted the same way and still says he misses the old me. What the size 4 or the one that got so wasted on a Saturday night out that I slept Sunday away, or the one that worked out 5 days a week, worked until I was blue in the face, always had a clean car and house but felt empty? Well news flash... the old me is forever gone and I am a new women... a better women, a happier women, a busier women and a more tired women... and there is not a day I would want to return my son for my old life. Okay well, maybe yesterday. But seriously he brings me more joy than ever imagined and that is why I am okay being tired and "no fun" :)

So friends without kids and husbands who "hate" their new life with kids read this article and understand a bit better why we "stay at home mom's" with our "free time", play dates (you think that is what I want to be doing?) and time at home eating bon bons are different and less "fun" than we were before kids. Read it and you will get why when we have 5 minutes to ourselves its not spent with our hubby or a phone call to a bf, rather its spent to yourself!

PS... as I wrote this Cohen took his entire lunch... smashed it into the floor, and rubbed his pb sandwhich on the wall. You never get a free second away from worry or work with kids!

Baby Brooke...

To see more of this sweet face and all that keeps me busy busy click HERE.

Update and Showered

Baby #2 update. I am 35 weeks. So just shy of a month away from my due date of the 24th. I started my weekly appointments this week where my doctor checks to see if I am dilated and thinning... Well, I am already a centimeter dilated so my doctor went ahead and scheduled me to be induced on either August 16th or 17th so my parents could schedule their flights out to help with Cohen but most of all be here for the birth. No one was here for Cohen's arrival. Jeremy's mom arrived the following day and my parents about 4 days after. This time we welcome the guest since beach boy #2 WILL BE our last. So great news that I am progressing right alone. Dilating and I am about 40% thinned out! Who knows at this rate I may go before my induction date.

I never posted about my fun little baby shower that my good friends the Tolson's threw for me two weekends ago. They are my home away from home and have become my little Arkansas family. Jill is one of my best friends and her sister, Robin, is close behind. Robin and I both had our first kids around the same time so it is fun to see Cohen and Gunnar get to spend time and now Jill has baby Harlow so the group of kids is growing and then their is Jill and Robin's momma Becky or Nonnie and the kids call her. She is the best too. I would feel familyless without the Tolson's! They showered Jeremy and I with a double stroller... huge THANK YOU for that! And of course Robin threw a great get together. Thank you Tolson family. I love you guys!!! Below are some pics from the shower.

Robin and I

Jill and I

Gunnar and Cohen (they are a month and a half apart in age. C being younger)

Jeremy with little Landon (good friends Riley and Stephanie's little guy)

Jill and sweet Harlow

Robin and Gunnar... Cohen and myself

Thought this was fun...

A picture taken of Cohen September 9, 2008
Gunnar 4.5 months Cohen just turned 3 months

This was from the shower

Gunnar 2 years and 4 months Cohen just turned 2 years 2 months
(total boys!)

catching up... babies galor, c starts school!

I have been playing catch up with my photography... I think besides a wedding to edit and my pediatric clinic ongoing project I am all but caught up. Oh wait then there is print materials, etc. and oh did I mention a studio in the works for September? Click HERE to see what all I have been up to.

Cohen started school yesterday... bitter sweet. He did great minus a few bouts of tears throughout the five hours he was there. I keep telling myself its good for him to go and its good for me to have me time and work time! I will get readjusted. Hell he went to school all last year.

33 Weeks

the sparkler was a bat of course!

We are at the 33 week mark with Beach boy #2. I am feeling pretty good! With Cohen my pregnancy was so easy and this one too. I will be honest and say I am tired at the end of the day, want to nap but I just can't with Cohen home and I cannot seem to get to bed before midnight with all my photography work and household duties. We had a check up today. Baby is measuring right on track and the heartbeat was strong. Again, the doctor we saw was more interested in Cohen's advanced baseball skills... videoing him on his phone doing his pitching from the stretch, high knee kick than he was in our little bean. Oh well, next appointment I am back to see the doctor who delivered Cohen so I will have more to update then.

Cohen went and saw his first movie. Toy Story 3 (3d) and hated it. It could have been that the 3d glasses they gave us were sized for Jeremy and not a 2 year old but really I think he is just sensitive to loud noises. He hated the fireworks on the fourth yet loved watching them out his playroom window from the second floor. Jeremy almost killed him with a "kid" firework so that probably did not help either. We went to a ball game with a fireworks show after and he just tucked his head into Jeremy's neck. So Cohen is a fireworks wimp which is okay by me. It means he won't be blowing any arms or legs off or blowing things up. Our friend Tory from Minnesota came and stayed with us for a few days. He and Cohen hit is off, playing ball all weekend.

There is the recap... Off to do more more work and get caught up so I can try to relax some.

Welcome Baby Landry!

Congrats to my close friend Melissa and her husband Jeff. They welcomed their new baby girl Landy Karis Conaway into the world in the wee hours of the morning. Sure that will not be the last time they are up late with her. You two have wanted a little one for so long and I cannot think of two people more deserving or ready for that matter. Again, congrats to you both!




* sorry the images are so small. i took them from melissa facebook