The more I think about it, the more I think I had mild postpartum depression after Will was born. I mentioned this to Chad and he says, Yeah I thought you kinda did.

Everything turned out fine, but geez, why didn't he tell me way back when?

In related news, we're all doing well. I'm adjusting to have two kids fairly well I think. Everyone is fed and has clean clothes, and we've even gone on some weekend excursions. And I don't feel as "dark" and helpless as I did when Will was so young. But whether that was PPD, simple exhaustion, or inexperience I'll never know.

And Chad is such an amazing dad (and husband)! Such a family man. :)

I caved and got checked at my OB appt today.

3 cm dilated, 75% effaced, -1 station.

Nice to know those contractions are doing something!

Non-stress test at next week's appt, since I'll be over 40 weeks.

I am 39w3d pregnant today!

Just wanted to note that, unlike the end of my pregnancy with Will, this time I AM feeling contractions at random times during the day. Nothing too painful, and certainly nothing organized, but occasionally I just have to pause and let the contraction happen. You know, in the middle of vacuuming or something. :)

Otherwise I'm fine! My feet swell sometimes if I'm standing too long. But then I just sit down. :p Sleep is getting harder... sometimes it's the contractions, sometimes it's Annemarie kicking me, sometimes I have to pee, sometimes my mind just won't go to sleep. I probably missed out on 2 hours of sleep last night because of it.

I really don't feel like I'm ready for her to be here yet. I mean, we have all the supplies and whatnot, but I'm not at all anxious about "When will she get here, come on!!!" or anything like that. I AM getting anxious about her coming early... I want her to come 'on time' because I'm afraid of what I'll have to go through if she's late, and like I said, I'm not really ready for her to come early/now.

I just really think my due date is off, and even the midwives said that if I make it to 42 weeks, I'll need to be induced. They'll try natural methods first... but obviously their goal would be to get the 'post-term' baby out.

Or you know, I could have her in the next two weeks and not have to worry about any of this. :)

Only 2 more days until I'm guaranteed an October Baby!! :D

Chad wants her to come Friday the 7th so he can maximize his time off from work since he get's the 10th off for Columbus Day. :p But I think that time frame would be perfect. :)

This pregnancy has been incredibly uneventful! And yes, I'm glad! :)

Though, Annie has been measuring small my last couple of appointments. So I'm going to have an ultrasound in two weeks to make sure everything is okay. I have some very strong opinions about this:

1) I don't have a reliable due date, and the docs don't seem to care. I don't care either that I don't have a good due date, but they're basing everything off of my 12 week u/s and it's driving my CRAZY. I have no LMP since I was still breastfeeding and my period hadn't come back yet. And the u/s report specifically said I was 12 weeks plus or minus 1 week. So, 11-13 weeks. From the beginning. And now that Annie is measuring a few weeks small, they're surprised...?

2) I switched practices when I was 26 weeks (to save gas money, of all reasons), and I KNOW they received my records, but for some reason won't refer to them to see if I've been measuring small the whole time. At my appointments, I was told I was measuring "on schedule", which is a range of 4cm. If I've been small all along, does it matter than I'm 30 cm at 32 (maybe 31???) weeks?

3) I'm not "anti-ultrasound", but it does bug me that there are so many other issues (that are not medically related) with this besides Annemarie simply being small.

4) If we're going to have the u/s, I want it NOW! I did some Googling, and reasons for a baby being small are a) the dates are off, b) there's a genetic problem, or c) placental abruption. With the first two, there's nothing we can do anyway. But if she's not getting enough oxygen/nutrients because of a placental abruption, I'd like to know NOW and not in TWO WEEKS!! Ugh!

So the fact that my OB (who I really like otherwise) isn't concerned enough to have the u/s sooner, should I assume it's not a placenta problem? I have no other symptoms (ie cramps or spotting) that would indicate such a problem... so...?

Oh, and she WAS measuring small at her 20 week u/s. The tech didn't say anything, but the computer automatically puts up an EDD based on measurements and for most everything, it was reading Oct 6-8, not my current EDD of Oct 2. But they won't look at my records from my old OB. o_O

I guess I 'skipped' a month in this pregnancy already. Wouldn't hurt to go for one more week. (not that I care about EDDs anyway)

Is someone going to buy me a baby book or can I just go ahead and get one myself? Don't want to be rude, but I wish I could send a mandate out for these things!! lol Just want to make sure I get one!

Anyway.

Anne Marie is really moving now. Rarely do I go an hour without a massive kick-fest. It's pretty awesome. :)

For the record, I was 124 lbs pre-pregnancy (02/2011), and 133 lbs on 05/12/2011. I feel like I really popped in the past few weeks, but since then, there hasn't been much visible growth.

Also, at the u/s, Anne Marie measured 18 weeks, even though I was 19 weeks. And my fundal height was also 19 weeks. Thought that was odd. But I have heard that with subsequent pregnancies you are bigger in the beginning until the baby starts to fill out more. But it makes we wonder if her due date is off? It only really matters because I don't want to be pressured into an induction.

And a PSA:
Yes, her name is first name Anne, middle name Marie. But please don't call her Anne. Her name is Anne Marie. Or Annie. Not Anne. I'm tempted to put them together and put in a new middle name just to clarify. We just didn't want her to have a super long name.

Example:
We decided to split it because we didn't want it to be too long or too hard to understand. deMontfort is a hard enough last name to live with (I like it! But seriously, it sounds like it's spelled and it's spelled like it sounds). So if we have "AnneMarie" as a first name and "Kay" for a middle (my mom's middle name), I could see her life going like this:

~~ My first name is AnneMarie, all one word, Anne with an 'e', capital M on Marie. Middle name is Kay, no, not just the letter K, K-A-Y. Last name is deMontfort, small d, capital M... no no, that's deMONTfort; d as in dog, o, m as in mark, o, n as in nancy... ~~

I do like the name AnneMarie Kay, but we thought Anne (first) Marie (middle) would make this easier. But her name isn't Anne!! sigh...

It's been a crazy fun week! And since I forgot my camera, I figured I need another medium to remember what happened.

Chad got a job offer for another company here in town. It's sort of a career defining switch, so he's really excited. And it's a pay raise, so you know. ;)

And it just so happened that Chad had to go on a last-minute TDY... to Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach!! So for Chad's last TDY, we took a mini-beach vacation. Stayed at the Hilton on the beach. The high was in the upper 80s, so not bad at all, especially on the water.

Will LOVED the beach! He loved digging in the sand, "Dig a small hole!", and he loved being knocked down by the waves. I took him in the pool where he kept walking up and down the steps and "making bubbles" by kicking his feet. The oatmeal at breakfast was amazing, and I looked SOO cute in my bathing suit with my baby bump. It was a tankini, btw, not a bikini. That would be nasty, lol.

Now, we're at Chad's parents, staying for the weekend "on the way" back home. We just came back from picking some wild blackberries, and I'm going to make some pie later. And Chad and I will be making grilled pizza for 10 people.

Anne Marie is doing very well, the pregnancy is going great. No news is good news. :)

And next weekend, we're celebrating Will's SECOND birthday, and we'll be having family in from out of town. I invited a bunch of local friends too, but everyone will be out of town!! Oh well, the bane of a summer birthday. But we're excited. :)

And, I've recently accepted the position of Secretary for a new MOMS Club chapter in South Houston County. I'm very excited to be in a leadership position again, especially Secretary. I chose this group to get involved in partly because one of the by-laws states that children are welcome at every and all events, so I can keep Will (and Annie) with me the whole time. He really doesn't do well in daycare/nurseries, so I feel this is the only way to do anything... and secretary is more behind the scenes work anyway, not teaching a class or something.

And our garden is exploding with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. I'm waiting not-so-patiently for my huge 'yellow' peppers to turn colors.

But yeah. Summer's going great. :)

I'm excited to announce that it is Miss Anne Marie who will be joining us this October!

Had our 20 week u/s today, and everything looks great! The tech said that Annie had a great facial structure. Lol!!

... to the tune of I'm a Nut...

Anne Marie is my baby
She's just like a cup of tea
Smooth and sweet as she can be
She's my little Anne Marie
Anne Marie (clap clap)
Anne Marie (clap clap)

Wanna know a secret? I made up that song, with the name, before I was even close to getting pregnant. The name first hit me when Will was 2 months old. o_O

Pics: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100746898815601.3351376.2010990&l=a36200858a

Baby #2 is due on Oct 2nd!!

Ultrasound pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3351376&id=2010990&l=a36200858a

We went to Orlando this past weekend to visit Tony and Sara and to attend Baby Michael's Shower. Had a great time! The shower itself was the first time I've ever left Will for more than an hour, and we were apart for about 4 hours - it  was great!! lol When I saw him again, he wouldn't look at me, even after I picked him up. My mom said he was mad at me. ;) But he had a great time playing with Dad and Uncle Tony and only cried a little when he got hurt. Yay!!

The rest of this year is going to FLY by! This weekend we'll be home, but might have a houseguest. The next weekend, we're going down south to celebrate Brian's bday. Then it's off to my parents' for Thanksgiving. And then it'll be December!! o_O Gotta start working on those gift lists and purchases... bah humbug.

There's no way I can properly play 'catch up' with what's been going on, and doing so has discouraged me from updating. So, NO EXPECTATIONS! lol, I'm just going to write what I want, when I want. Or at least when Will will let me. :)

I love breastfeeding my 16.5 month old! Seriously. I am SO HAPPY we've been able to go this long. My poor SIL had to stop because my nephew kept refusing her.

I'm discovering I have a passion for natural births, breastfeeding, and other natural parenting techniques. I really want to learn more about all of them, especially on a medical level, and get some proper education on them so I can have a coherent, intelligent conversation with another coherent, intelligent person. I'm having trouble admitting that I can't really get any formal education right now. No money, no time. Especially no time. And there are very few resources that support natural parenting around here.

Chad and I are about to embark on a major veggie gardening expedition soon. We're planning for our Spring garden, and it's SO overwhelming. So many veggies! So much timing! It'd be easier if we weren't constantly diverting Will from the 200 million red any piles in our yard. THEY DON'T DIE!!!

Will is learning how to say "no". Right now it sounds like "nuuu nuuu". I might think he's trying to say "nurse", except he has another word for that. :)